Morocco Dominates Central African Republic with Serhou Guirassy Hat-Trick

Morocco matched the largest winning margin in the 2025 qualifiers, tying South Africa's record with a dominating five-goal victory over Congo Brazzaville in Gqeberha just one day after South Africa's impressive performance.

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.

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.

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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.

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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. 

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Matchday 4 kicks off on Sunday with a solitary fixture, between Burundi and Burkina Faso. There are eight matches the following day and 15 on Tuesday. 

(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)