MOROCCO manager Walid Regragui revealed the reason why goalkeeper Yassine Bounou disappeared from the pitch right before kick-off.
Bounou was named in Regragui’s starting line-up and stood with the rest of his team-mates for the national anthems before the World Cup clash with Belgium at the Al Thumama Stadium.
All of a sudden, the North Africans’ second goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi posed for the team’s pre-match photo and made his way to the Moroccan goalposts.
The bizarre incident caught everyone out and even took the BBC commentators almost 25 minutes to realise the switch had happened.
The commentators even referred to Bounou – aka Bono – when it was actually Munir who made a save from Michy Batshuayi in the first half.
Regragui revealed the Sevilla keeper was still hurting from an injury he suffered in the World Cup opener against Croatia.
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The Moroccan tactician claims the 31-year-old realised just before kick-off that he is not match fit and put the team above himself before admitting Munir should have his place.
Regragui told beIN Sports: “He took a whack against Croatia, he was unsteady.
“We tried until the last moment but after the warm-up, just before the match, he did not feel good and he had the honesty to give way to someone else.
“If you want to be in my squad you have to be 100 per cent and Yassine understood that and gave up his place to Munir, who had a great game.”
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Morocco picked up a surprise 2-0 victory over one of the World Cup’s favourites Belgium, who are now facing a shock elimination from the group stage.
Abdelhamid Sabiri opened the scoring after 73 minutes following an unbelievable howler by Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Zakaria Aboukhlal sealed the Moroccans’ famous victory in the second minute of stoppage time.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
