Soufiane Rahimi and Gessime Yassine scored late goals for Morocco to deny Haiti their first-ever World Cup point in Atlanta.
Morocco pegged the Caribbean nation back twice – thanks to goals from Achraf Hakimi and Ismael Saibari – before Rahimi scored with 12 minutes to go and Yassine secured the victory.
The win was not enough for Morocco to top Group C as Brazil comfortably defeated Scotland in Miami and the 2022 semi-finalists will now face either the Netherlands, Japan or Sweden in the last 32.
But they did deny Haiti a memorable night – despite the team ranked 83rd in the world taking the lead twice and doubling their total goals tally in the competition’s history.
Haiti were eliminated before their final game of the group stage after defeats by Scotland and Brazil but they managed to get their first World Cup goal in 52 years when Lenny Joseph’s flicked finish came off Morocco keeper Yassine Bounou and found its way into the net.
That 10th-minute opener went down as an own goal to deny Joseph the honour of becoming the first man to join Emmanuel Sanon – who scored twice in 1974 – as a Haiti scorer at the World Cup.
But Paris St-Germain full-back Hakimi pulled Morocco level in the 39th minute, bundling the ball home when Haiti goalkeeper Johny Placide failed to get a strong enough hand to Brahim Diaz’s strike.
Then Sunderland striker Wilson Isidor scored one of the goals of the tournament when he fired into the top corner from 25 yards to spark jubilant scenes among the Haiti fans two minutes before half-time.
But Morocco levelled again in first-half stoppage time as Saibari got his third of the tournament when Hakimi pulled the ball back into his path in a slick move.
Placide – who spent a season at Oldham Athletic in 2017-18 – pulled off a series of saves to deny Morocco but he could do nothing about substitute Rahimi’s effort which deflected off Haiti defender Ricardo Ade.
Yassine then turned home after Rahimi managed to just keep the ball in play – which was confirmed by the video assistant referee – with a minute to go.
