CAIRO, 28 October 2003 — Morocco outclassed Ethiopia 4-0 Sunday as the group phase of the African qualifying competition for the 2004 Olympic Games began.
The result confirmed the strength of the North Africans in front of their supporters as they beat Gambia by a similar score in the first leg of a first round tie staged on a home-and-away basis.
Ethiopia, who upset Zimbabwe to reach the 16-nation mini-league program, were behind after only 11 minutes in Rabat when Merouane Chamakh struck and Souidi added a second just four minutes later.
Allaoui struck twice during the second half to complete the rout and send Morocco to the top of Group C on goal difference from Angola, who came from behind to win 2-1 in Uganda.
Andrew Mwesigwa broke the deadlock in Kampala after 52 minutes only for Lourenco ‘Lolo’ Cuxixima to level within eight minutes and Joaquim Marcos snatched the winner in the 74th minute.
Angola host Morocco during December in the second series of fixtures and the result is likely to have a significant influence on who wins the group and qualifies for the finals in Greece during August.
Morocco were among the four African representatives at the 2000 Olympics tournament in Australia and another qualifier, South Africa, made a losing start in Group D, going down 1-0 to Ghana in Accra.
Kwadwo Poku was the match-winner, catching South African goalkeeper Jacob Mukhasi off guard eight minutes from full-time before a large crowd at the Accra Sports Stadium. Mukhasi, one of many changes made by South Africa after a dismal showing at the All-Africa Games in Nigeria this month, made a series of superb saves to deny Ghana a more handsome success.
The other match in an intriguing pool was also settled by a solitary goal as Ali Hadji struck after only four minutes to give Algeria a 1-0 win over Zambia in Annaba.
Visa problems meant the Zambians arrived in the North Africa only 24 hours before the kickoff and they rarely threatened to equalize against rivals who crushed Chad 5-0 in the previous round.
