Hosts Morocco wasted no time in establishing themselves as one of the teams to watch at the 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. Les Lionceaux showed their quality at the Stade El Bachir in Mohammedia with a dominant 5-0 victory over Uganda to kick off the competition.
Ilies Belmokhtar scored twice along with goals from Driss Cheikh and Ziyad Baha to give the Lion Cubs a dominant lead by halftime. Belmokhtar, from the academy of AS Monaco, opened the scoring inside five minutes with a perfectly placed header from Abdellah Ouazane’s cross.
Cheikh doubled the lead less than three minutes later with a towering header following a quickly taken short corner kick. Shortly before the 20th minute, Belmokhtar was tripped up and after a VAR review, a penalty kick was awarded for Baha to fire a well taken spot kick past Uganda goalkeeper Ashraf Lukyamuzi.
But all previous goals paled in comparison to Morocco’s fourth. A brilliant sequence was started from the defense as FUS Rabat midfielder Ahmed Mawhoub received the ball and effortlessly maneuvered past a Ugandan defender before setting up Belmokhtar, who calmly finished between the legs of Lukyamuzi to add another goal in humiliating fashion.
The action calmed down in the second half but Uganda made little to no progress in their attempts to pose a threat to the Moroccan defense. Baha added one more goal and his second for Les Lionceaux in the 71st minute when Lukyamuzi came out of his goal and failed to reach the ball, allowing Baha to head into an empty net.
Morocco will face Zambia in their next Group A match on Thursday while Uganda face East African rivals Tanzania.
