Morocco continue to set the standard in Africa after they beat Congo 1-0 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium on Tuesday to set a record for most consecutive wins.
Youssef En-Nesyri stepped off the bench to score the only goal of the game in the second half as Walid Regragui’s side surpassed Spain’s achievement of 15 wins in a row set between 2008 and 2009.
The Atlas Lions made it eight wins from eight in Group E to become the only team who didn’t drop any points during the qualifying campaign.
The hosts bossed proceedings in the first half and created numerous chances, but they failed to trouble Perrauld Ndinga with any of their six attempts at goal.
Nayef Aguerd sent a free-kick wide of the target on 20 minutes while Abde Ezzalzouli lacked composure as he fired a wayward shot in the 31st minute.
Deo Bassinga had a sniff at goal for the Red Devils a few minutes earlier following good build-up, but he too was unable to hit the target.
Eliesse Ben Seghir also passed up an opportunity to open the scoring on 37 minutes after latching onto Souffian El Karouani’s dangerous cross as he failed to test Ndinga as well.
Morocco continued to probe away in search of the opening goal and Ndinga was finally called into action on 58 minutes to make a routine save from Ismael Saibari.
The North Africans threatened again three minutes later when Neil El Aynaoui lined up a shot from range that gave Ndinga some more work to do.
However, the breakthrough eventually came on 63 minutes as substitute En-Nesyri beat Ndinga with a well-placed shot to register his second goal in qualifying.
Regragui made a whole host of changes shortly afterwards to inject more energy into his attack, although Morocco weren’t able to add to their one goal after struggling to break down a rigid opposition defence.