Morocco will square off against Tanzania at the Stade de San Pédro in their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) campaign opener today, 17 January.
Morocco are the top African team in the FIFA rankings (13) and, having finished fourth at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, they are strong favorites. They have won the AFCON just once, with that triumph coming in 1976.
They met eventual finalists Egypt in the 2019 AFCON quarter-finals, suffering a 2-1 loss. Sofiane Boufal had opened the scoring in the seventh minute to give his team the lead but Egypt recorded a comeback win thanks to Mohamed Salah’s second-half equalizer and Trézéguet’s winner in extra time.
Tanzania are playing in the AFCON for just the third time and are back in the tournament after 2019, having failed to qualify in the previous edition. They met Egypt in a friendly earlier this month, suffering a 2-0 loss.
Morocco are unbeaten in their last five games across all competitions, recording four wins, including a 3-1 triumph over Sierra Leone in a friendly last week. Youssef En-Nesyri bagged a brace and Boufal was also on the scoresheet in the first half.
Morocco vs Tanzania Head-to-Head
The two teams have locked horns five times across all competitions thus far. As expected, the 1976 champions have the upper hand in these meetings with four wins while Tanzania have picked up just one win in this fixture.Three of the five meetings between them have produced over 2.5 goals.They last met in the CAF 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in November, with Morocco recording a comfortable 2-0 away win.Tanzania are winless in their six group-stage games at the AFCON, suffering five defeats. They lost all three games in their group-stage appearance in 2019, scoring just twice and conceding eight goals.