{"id":50838,"date":"2025-10-15T15:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes"},"modified":"2025-10-15T15:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:39:05","slug":"leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes","title":{"rendered":"Leone Stars Win in Morocco but End World Cup Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>The Sierra Leone national football team, Leone Stars, arrived safely in Freetown on Tuesday morning after concluding their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>The team secured a 2-1 victory over Djibouti in their final match in Casablanca, but their earlier 1-0 loss to Burkina Faso ended Sierra Leone\u2019s hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), \u201cThe team returns home with renewed confidence as they shift focus to preparations for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and other upcoming international competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sierra Leone finished third in Group A with 15 points, following a challenging qualifying campaign that included matches against African football powerhouses such as Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, and Djibouti.<\/p>\n<p>With the World Cup dream concluded, the Leone Stars are now turning their attention to a more achievable goal: competing for a spot in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Sierra-Leone<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. The Sierra Leone national football team, Leone Stars, arrived safely in Freetown on Tuesday morning after concluding their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in Morocco. The team secured a 2-1 victory over Djibouti in their final match in Casablanca, but their earlier 1-0 loss to Burkina Faso ended Sierra Leone\u2019s hopes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-50838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leone Stars Win in Morocco but End World Cup Hopes - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Sierra Leone national football team, Leone Stars, arrived safely in Freetown on Tuesday morning after concluding the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leone Stars Win in Morocco but End World Cup Hopes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sierra Leone national football team, Leone Stars, arrived safely in Freetown on Tuesday morning after concluding the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-15T15:29:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-15T15:39:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2025\/10\/sm_1760530031.836985.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"565\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Leone Stars Win in Morocco but End World Cup Hopes\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-15T15:29:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-15T15:39:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2025\/10\/sm_1760530031.836985.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/leone-stars-win-in-morocco-but-end-world-cup-hopes\",\"name\":\"Leone Stars Win in Morocco but End World Cup Hopes - 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