Morocco will aim to maintain their 100% record by 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers when they are welcome Lesotho to the Honneur Stadium on Monday in the final round.

The home side recorded a narrow 1-0 win in their only previous meeting against the visitors in September and are heavy favorites to complete a double in Oujda.

Match example

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Despite being guaranteed an automatic spot in the AFCON 2025 due to their status as hosts, Morocco are participating in the qualifiers for secondary reasons but are showing no signs of taking things lightly.

Walid Regragui‘s men made an early statement of intent with a 4-1 thrashing of Gabon in their opening outing before completing victories over Lesotho and Central African Republic (two) by a combined score of 10-0.

The Atlas Lions finally saw their run of games without setbacks come to an end last time out against Gabon, where they fell behind Denis Bouanga‘s opener before storming to a 5-1 victory led by the heroics of Brahim Diaz.

Although largely inconsequential, Morocco sit comfortably at the top of Group B, eight points clear of second-placed Gabon and a further three points clear of Lesotho ahead of Monday’s meeting between the teams.

Monday’s hosts are the only team to still have a perfect record in the qualifiers after five matches and now have the chance to achieve their highest number of points in an AFCON qualifying campaign since 2017 (16).

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Lesotho, seeking a first-ever appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations, could not have asked for a worse start to their qualifying journey after back-to-back defeats to the Central African Republic and Morocco to kick off the tournament.

Leslie Notsi‘s men finally got on the board with a goalless share of the spoils against Gabon in their third appearance on October 11, before suffering a 2–0 defeat to the same opponents four days later.

In the last chance to keep their AFCON ambitions alive, Likuena headed to the Toyota Stadium to take on CAR on Thursday afternoon and secured a much-needed 1-0 win in Bloemfontein.

Lesotho still have a chance to secure second place in Group B but would need results elsewhere to get their way even if they manage to beat Morocco, who are unbeaten since defeat by South Africa in January.

All Monday’s visitors can do, however, is take care of business on their own, although their away record does not reflect a good figure with just two wins in nine games on enemy territory since the turn of the year.

Morocco Africa Cup of Nations Qualification format:

Form Morocco (all competitions):

Lesotho Africa Cup of Nations Qualification Form:

Lesotho form (all competitions):

Team news

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In only his third game for Morocco, Jamal Harkass scored his first goal against Gabon to spark an emphatic comeback and maintain his winning streak on the international stage.

Ishmael Saibari scored a goal and an assist apiece in just 10 minutes as a substitute last time out, and that could see him rewarded with a place in the starting XI.

Fenerbahce forward Youssef En-Nesyri the home team is now 22 goals behind, alone Ayoub El Kaabi (26) and Hakim Ziyech (25) among all active players.

Returning to the lineup for Lesotho vs. CAR, Neo Mokhachane came up with the all-important winning goal to take his tally of international goals to three.

Arguably his country’s best player throughout the entire AFCON qualifying campaign: goalkeeper Sekhoane Moerane will have to put another inspired display between the sticks here.

Possible starting line-up for Morocco:
Bono; Mazraoui, Aguerd, Harkass, Hakimi; Amrabat, Ounahi; Saibari, Ben Seghir, Diaz; En-Nesyri

Lesotho possible starting lineup:
Moërane; Matsau, Makhele, Mokokoana, Matlabe; Lebokollane, Fothoane, Matsoele; Letsema, Motebang, Mokhachane

We say: Morocco 3-0 Lesotho

Morocco have been impressive at both ends of the pitch and it is difficult to imagine any other result than a win for them in this match.

We fully expect the home side to cruise to a routine victory in the end.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match, click here.

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