"The Atlas Lions" kick off their World Cup journey with a draw against the Brazilian national team.

The Moroccan national football team began its journey in the 2026 World Cup with a positive draw of one goal each against their Brazilian counterpart, in a match held on Saturday evening at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, USA, as part of the first round of the group stage.

The Moroccan team started the first half with a clear advantage, imposing its style of play from the early minutes through ball possession and applying high pressure on the Brazilian team, coming close to opening the scoring early in the fifth minute with a shot from Nail Al-Ainawi.

Despite the Brazilian team's attempts to break free from the pressure and advance towards Yassine Bounou's goal, the "Atlas Lions" continued to show a strong presence on the field, successfully translating their superiority into a first goal in the 20th minute, as Ismail Sabari took advantage of a precise pass from Ibrahim Diaz and found the net with a remarkable technical touch.

The Moroccan team maintained its advantage for long periods of the first half, creating other chances that were not utilized to enhance the score, before Vinicius Junior managed to exploit a defensive error in the 32nd minute, equalizing for the Brazilian team, and the first half ended in a positive draw of one goal each.

The second half began with Brazilian offensive pressure on the Moroccan goal, which was met by the teammates of Issa Diop with organized defensive play and balanced coverage, tightening spaces in the backline and relying on long balls to build counter-attacks.

As the minutes of the second half went by, Carlo Ancelotti played all his attacking cards in search of solutions to break the Moroccan defensive block, while Mohamed Wahbi chose to focus on securing the backline and closing all avenues, with a noticeable absence of offensive initiative from the "Atlas Lions" during the first 25 minutes of this half.