Brazil vs Morocco Prediction: World Cup 2026 Match Preview

Carlo Ancelotti will become the first foreign coach to lead Brazil at a FIFA World Cup in Saturday’s Group C meeting with Morocco. We look ahead to the match with our preview.

Brazil vs Morocco: The Key Insights

Brazil have a 58.6% chance of getting their World Cup campaign off to a winning start against Morocco, according to the Opta supercomputer.

This is the only group-stage fixture to feature two teams inside the top 10 of the FIFA World Rankings (Brazil 6th, Morocco 8th).

Carlo Ancelotti is bidding to become the third coach to win both the World Cup and UEFA Champions League/European Cup after Marcello Lippi and Vicente del Bosque.

Brazil will begin their pursuit of a sixth World Cup title when they take on Morocco in their Group C opener at New York New Jersey Stadium on Saturday.

No country has a relationship with the World Cup quite like Brazil does; they are the only country to have featured in every edition since the competition’s inception in 1930, and their five wins are the most of any nation.

However, with their last success coming in 2002, they are on their joint-longest run without lifting the trophy. Failure in North America would leave the football-loving nation needing to ask serious questions about how they move forward.

Four years ago, they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Croatia, with Raphinha ending the tournament as the player to have got the most shots on target without scoring a goal (6).

The attacker is primed to make his mark in a more positive manner this time around, though. He was involved in more goals than any other Brazil player in 2026 qualifying (five goals and two assists) and contributed 21 goals and seven assists in 33 appearances all competitions for La Liga winners Barcelona in 2025-26.

Although they beat Panama 6-2 and Egypt 2-1 in their warm-up friendlies, Brazil were far from convincing in qualification; their fifth-place finish was their worst since the format was introduced 30 years ago.

They now have one of the most decorated coaches in the competition in their dugout in the form of Carlo Ancelotti, who got them over the line and will be managing at the World Cup for the first time in his career.

Ancelotti will be hoping to help ensure Brazil maintain their record of topping their first-round group in every World Cup since 1982. They will significantly boost their chances if they begin their game by overcoming Morocco, with Scotland and Haiti posing less of a threat on paper.

That is by no means a given, though, with Morocco a nation on the rise. They reached the semi-finals in Qatar four years ago and were the only African team to win all eight of their qualifying matches for the 2026 edition. Of course, they were retrospectively awarded the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title after a controversial final with Senegal too.

It is therefore unsurprising that the Atlas Lions have been tipped as dark horses in some quarters, with Achraf Hakimi, Brahim Díaz and Ayoub El Kaabi sure to play important roles. Díaz and El Kaabi contributed eight of Morocco’s nine goals at the 2025 AFCON.

Ismael Saibari is another player to watch out for. The midfielder racked up 19 goals and nine assists in all competitions for PSV in the 2025-26 season, which is why he has been so heavily linked with a move to Bayern Munich.

Saibari netted twice in Morocco’s first warm-up game – a 4-0 win over Madagascar – before they drew 1-1 with Norway in New York.

The meeting with Norway was marred by injuries to Abdi Ezzalzouli and Noussair Mazraoui. Ezzalzouli was consequently ruled out of the World Cup, joining Nayef Aguerd in dropping out of the squad due to injury. Mazraoui, meanwhile, is a doubt to face Brazil with the shoulder injury he sustained.

Brazil have confirmed that Neymar is making good progress in his recovery from a calf injury, but he is not expected to be fit enough to feature against Morocco. Right-back Wesley is also likely to miss out after sustaining an injury in the victory over Egypt.

Brazil vs Morocco Head-to-Head

This will be just the second meeting between Brazil and Morocco at the World Cup, with the previous encounter coming in the 1998 group stage – a match that featured Ronaldo and Rivaldo’s first goals in the competition.

Their only game since then was a friendly in Tunisia in March 2023, with Morocco running out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Sofiane Boufal and Abdelhamid Sabiri.

Brazil have won seven of their eight World Cup matches against African opposition, though. The sole exception was a 1-0 defeat to Cameroon in 2022, although that featured a much-changed line-up with the Seleção having already booked their place in the last 16.

Brazil vs Morocco Prediction

Brazil have the upper hand in this Group C curtain-raiser, having come out on top in 57.7% of the Opta supercomputer‘s 25,000 pre-match simulations.

The spoils were shared in 23.5% of the projections, with Morocco taking all three points in just 18.8% of them.

Whoever comes out on top, though, will likely consider themselves to have the best chance of finishing top of the group.

Brazil vs Morocco Squads

Brazil: Alisson Becker, Weverton, Ederson, Gabriel Magalhães, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro, Danilo, Bremer, Léo Pereira, Douglas Santos, Roger Ibañez, Éderson Silva, Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Fabinho, Danilo Santos, Lucas Paquetá, Vinícius Júnior, Matheus Cunha, Neymar, Raphinha, Endrick, Luiz Henrique, Gabriel Martinelli, Igor Thiago, Rayan.

Morocco: Yassine Bounou, Munir El Kajoui, Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti, Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui, Marwane Saadane, Zakaria El Ouahdi, Issa Diop, Chadi Riad, Youssef Belammari, Redouane Halhal, Anass Salah-Eddine, Sofyan Amrabat, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Azzedine Ounahi, Brahim Díaz, Ismael Saibari, Samir El Mourabet, Bilal El Khannouss, Neil El Aynaoui, Chemsdine Talbi, Soufiane Rahimi, Gessime Yassine, Amine Sbaï, Ayoub El Kaabi, Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab.

Brazil vs Morocco Predicted Lineups

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