2025 AFCON: Morocco seek to secure first place against Zambia
by Tyler Doty | by Tyler Doty
Lacking Conviction in Matchday 2
The group stage of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is coming to an end, and on Monday, some of the matches from matchday 3 will be played. In one of them, Morocco will face Zambia at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdallah in Rabat.
Walid Regragui's men have been unable to secure their place in the second round after their draw against Mali on matchday 2. Despite being the better side, they were unable to capitalize on their superiority with goals, their only score coming from a penalty by Brahim Diaz. However, thanks to their opening victory against Comoros, they remain group leaders with four points and are still the favorites in our AFCON 2025 predictions.
Their rivals, for now, remain undefeated with two draws. The first was a 1-1 draw against Mali, and the second was a 0-0 draw against Comoros. It is a difficult situation, but they have it in their own hands to cause an upset and advance to the next round.
A Favorable Record for the Moroccans
The list of matches between these two teams goes back many years. With the first in 1973, they have faced each other 19 times so far. To date, the balance favors the North Africans with 12 wins against 5 losses. They have only drawn twice in history.
On the other hand, if we focus only on recent times, Morocco has accumulated five consecutive victories against this opponent. All of these were official matches and include World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Here are the results of the last five matches.
- Morocco 3-1 Zambia: January 2021 African Nations Championship
- Zambia 0-1 Morocco: January 2024 AFCON Qualifiers
- Morocco 2-1 Zambia: June 2024 World Cup Qualifiers
- Morocco 3-1 Zambia: August 2025 African Nations Championship
The Hosts, Clear Favorites
We will see the city of Rabat overwhelmed by the possibility of Morocco finishing top of their group. Given their current form, squad strength, and recent history, they are clear favorites to take all three points, and this is also reflected by the sportsbooks, who are offering average odds of -500.
On the other hand, Zambia is a team that showed defensive fragility before this tournament and will face one of the continent's strongest contenders. Not only are the Moroccans expected to win the match, but there are also expected to be many goals in these 90 minutes, as we have noted in our Zambia vs. Morocco prediction.
For those who love betting on goalscorers, Regragui's men have several interesting names to keep an eye on. With odds of -105 each, the first names on the list are Ayoub El Kaabi and Youssef En-Nesyri. A little further down are Soufiane Rahimi (-105) and Brahim Diaz (+170).
Useful information
- Kick-off time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern
- Stadium: Stade Prince Moulay Abdallah (Rabat)
