The statistics of the 1-1 draw between Brazil and Morocco at the 2026 World Cup are very balanced, but if there is something that Brazilian fans didn’t feel, it was balance in the team’s debut.
In the first 30 minutes of the game, the Moroccan team dominated the action, while the Brazilians seemed out of sorts, missing many passes.
After Vinicius Junior’s goal, 31 minutes into the first half, the game became even.
In the second stage, Brazil tried to press in the opening minutes, but were unable to create good scoring opportunities.
At the same time, the Moroccans no longer attacked as much, seeming satisfied with the draw.
Thus, despite so many Brazilian errors at the beginning, the two teams ended the match with similar numbers in successful passes (448 for Brazil, compared to 421 for Morocco), fouls committed (16 to 14), shots on goal (13 to 14), crosses (16 to 15), tackles (23 to 24) and percentage of shots converted into goals (11% to 12%).
BALL EXIT
Brazil had difficulty playing throughout the game, while Morocco managed to move around the field with ease.
At first, he insisted on long throws and passes, without success. And, when the Moroccans slowed down, the ball was concentrated on defenders Marquinhos and Gabriel Magalhães, as shown in the following passing graph.
The lines show completed passes between players across the field. The thicker the line, the greater the concentration of passes between two athletes.
The teams’ heat maps reinforce the contrast: while the Brazilian spot is in the defense field, exactly in the defense pair, Morocco occupies the right side of attack, where Hakimi and Brahim Díaz, the team’s stars, play.
With the volume of touches between defenders, Gabriel Magalhães is the fourth player who has passed the ball the most in the World Cup so far (85 passes), behind fellow defender Ream (United States, with 90 passes) and the Swiss defense duo, Elvedi and Akanji (92 and 102 passes, respectively).
MIDDLE OF THE FIELD
The comparison between midfielders Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) and Ayoub Bouaddi (Morocco) is a portrait of the difference between the midfield of the two teams.
Bouaddi completed twice as many passes (29) in the attacking field and was superior in other metrics, except assists: Bruno played it to Vinicius before the attacker scored the goal.
This Moroccan dominance in the midfield was crucial to the Africans’ devastating start to the game.
COUNTER-ATTACKS
Although Moroccan possession of the ball was frightening, it was the counterattacks that defined the result.
With just two passes, Morocco left the defense field and left Saibari face to face with Alisson to open the scoring, as shown in the video.
On the other side, four passes were enough for Vinicius to invade the area and shoot into goalkeeper Bono’s left corner.
RIGHT SIDE OF THE FIELD
The origin of the two goals is linked to errors on the right side of the field.
It was there that Lucas Paquetá lost the ball from the counterattack that defined the Moroccan goal.
The duo formed by him and Ibañez on the Brazilian right side was one of Brazil’s worst points in the match, so much so that Carlo Ancelotti served them both in the second half.
In the Brazilian goal, Bono tries to pass the ball to the very forward right-back Hakimi, intercepted by Douglas Santos. From there comes the play in which Vinicius equalizes.
Detail: advanced, Hakimi doesn’t even return to help the defense. It was up to midfielder El Aynaoui to mark the Brazilian number 7, without success.
INEFFICIENCY IN ATTACK
It’s early, the World Cup is just beginning, but so far Brazil and Canada are the countries with the lowest percentage of shots converted into goals, both with 11% (almost 10 shots to generate 1 goal). The United States leads in this regard, with 33% (3 shots to generate 1 goal).
Furthermore, the Brazilian team’s number of shots on debut was the worst of the last three World Cup debuts: just 12.
In the first game of 2018, against Switzerland, there were 21 shots. In 2022, against Serbia, 23. On average in these two matches, when the coach was Tite, Brazil finished almost twice as many as they did against the Moroccans on Saturday night (13).
