JOHANNESBURG: Moro­cco hammered Cen­tral African Republic 5-0 and Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick as Guinea trounced Ethiopia 4-1 on Saturday in the final 2025 Africa Cup of Nations third-round qualifiers.

Azzedine Ounahi netted twice and Abde Ezzalzouli, Achraf Hakimi and Sou­fiane Rahimi once each as 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco eased to victory in Oujda after leading 4-0 by half-time.

It was a predictable Group ‘B’ outcome as 114 places separate top-ranked African team Morocco from the Central African Republic — the widest gap among the 24 third-round pairings.

Morocco equalled the biggest winning margin in 2025 qualifying after South Africa set the benchmark with a five-goal drubbing of Congo Brazzaville in Gqeberha 24 hours earlier.

Morocco qualify automatically for the AFCON as hosts, with the tournament due to start on December 21, 2025 and finish on January 18, 2026, the first time it has spanned two years.

But instead of playing friendlies, Morocco (nine points) opted for competitive match practice, leaving Gabon (four), Central African Republic (three) and Lesotho (one) to fight for one place.

Meanwhile, the pace and power of Guirassy was too much for Ethiopia to handle in Group ‘H’ as 65-year-old French coach Michel Dussuyer began a fourth spell in charge of Guinea.

Guirassy, born in France to Guinean parents, sent goalkeeper Seid Habtamu the wrong way from an 18th-minute penalty to open the scoring in Abidjan.

His next two goals, after 37 minutes and in first half added-time, saw the Boru­ssia Dortmund forward outpace defenders and fire close-range shots into the right corner of the net.

It was the first hat-trick in 2025 qualifying and made Guirassy the joint leading scorer with Alge­rian Amine Gouiri, Egyp­tian Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan and Ivorian Jean-Philippe Krasso.

Seydouba Cisse, who set up the second goal for Guir­assy, turned scorer early in the second half off an assist from Mady Camara.

After scoring just once in 180 minutes when losing to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania last month, Guinea netted four times within 48 minutes.

Ethiopia, who failed to score in their first two matches, finally breached the Guinea defence on 53 minutes with Kenean Markneh netting.

DR Congo top the table with nine points, and share perfect records halfway through qualifying with Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Morocco.

Tanzania have four points and Guinea three, and their November meeting will probably decide who finishes runners-up and accompanies likely table-toppers DR Congo to Morocco.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024