Morocco beat New Caledonia by an incredible 16-0 on Sunday in the final round of Group B at the U-17 World Cup. This is the biggest win in the tournament's history.
As well as New Caledonia's fragility, the bizarre scoreline is explained by two sending-offs in the first half, for Typhan Dreuko and Jean Canehmez. Morocco had previously taken a 3-0 lead in less than 20 minutes.
Ajax's Abdellah Ouazane, who saw a move to Real Madrid fall through last summer following a failed medical, was brought on in the 63rd minute and had a massive impact, scoring two goals and assisting another in his 27 minutes of playing time in Doha.
Ten different players scored in the Moroccan massacre: Bilal Soukrat, Oualid Ibn Salah (2), Abdelali Eddaoudi (2), Ilyas Hidaoui, Ziyad Baha(2), Zakari El Khalfioui, Nahel Haddani (2), Abdellah Ouazane (2), Steevy Andrew (own goal) and Ismail El Aoud (2).
New Caledonia have now been the victim of three of the five biggest defeats in the history of the Under-17 World Cup. One of them was to Brazil in 2023, 9-0. In the same edition, the New Caledonians were thrashed 10-0 by England.
The record for the highest score was set by Spain, who beat New Zealand 13-0 in 1997 New Zealand 0-13 Spainin 1997. The record has stood for 12 editions of the U-17 World Cup.
No mercy
Morocco kept their hunger for goals until the very end because they needed the balance to advance to the second round as one of the best third-placed teams. The Atlas Lions had two defeats and a goal difference of -8, which jumped to +8.
Check out the U-17 World Cup group standings
Qualification is not guaranteed, but should be confirmed by Tuesday, when the group stage ends.
New Caledonia finished bottom and were eliminated. Incredibly, the Oceania team were coming off the back of a 0-0 draw with Japan, who finished top of the group after beating Portugal 2-1 and Morocco 2-0.
Biggest wins at the U-17 World Cup:
1) Morocco 16-0 New Caledonia (2025)
2) New Zealand 0-13 Spain (1997)
3) New Caledonia 0-10 England (2023)
4) Brazil 9-0 New Caledonia (2023)
5) Colombia 9-1 Finland (2003)
