For half an hour in Atlanta, Morocco stared down the prospect of one of the World Cup's great embarrassments. Haiti, unfancied and unbowed, led by two, playing without fear and with the swagger of a side that had nothing to lose. Then the tide turned, and once it did there was no holding it back. By the final whistle Morocco had won 4-2, the scoreline flattering the length of time the outcome had genuinely been in doubt.

This was a Group C fixture that threatened to redraw the pre-tournament assumptions and instead confirmed them, but only after Morocco had been made to sweat through every one of the ninety minutes. The comeback was emphatic in the end, four goals arriving with a controlled fury, yet the manner of the start will linger. Haiti did not merely turn up to make up the numbers; they arrived to compete, and for a spell they looked more than capable of taking something home.

The venue, cavernous and expectant, had come to see the fancied side stroll. What it got instead was a genuine contest, a match with a spine and a story, and a resolution that spoke to the depth and quality Morocco can call upon when the situation demands it. In the end, class and composure won out over adventure and audacity.

A nightmare start

The opening was a horror. On ten minutes, Yassine Bounou, so often Morocco's rock, turned the ball into his own net to hand Haiti a lead nobody in the building had anticipated. It was the cruellest of beginnings for a goalkeeper of his standing, and it lit a fire beneath the underdogs.

Morocco steadied and struck back on 39 minutes through Achraf Hakimi, the full-back arriving to finish from very close range with his left foot, drilling the ball into the centre of the goal. Parity restored, order seemingly returning. But Haiti had other ideas, and they came again almost immediately.

Four minutes later Wilson Isidor produced the moment of the match, a right-footed strike from outside the box that flew into the top-left corner, teed up by Jean-Kévin Duverne. It was a goal of real quality, the kind that announces a team's belief, and it sent Haiti in front for a second time. Morocco, momentarily, looked rattled to their core.

The tide turns

The decisive intervention came at the very end of the half. Deep into first-half stoppage time, Ismael Saibari swept a right-footed finish into the bottom-left corner from the centre of the box, Hakimi again the architect with the assist. The timing could hardly have been better; instead of trudging off two goals to the good, Haiti went in level, their momentum punctured at the worst possible moment.

That equaliser reshaped the entire evening. A team leading at the break carries belief into the second half; a team pegged back in stoppage time carries doubt. Morocco emerged for the restart the more composed side, sensing that the earlier chaos had drained something from their opponents. The balance of the contest had shifted, quietly but unmistakably.

Haiti, for all their first-half bravado, now had to find fresh reserves of resistance. They had spent so much energy chasing the game while ahead that the prospect of a long second half loomed heavy. Morocco, patient and increasingly confident, began to squeeze.

Punished from set pieces

The breakthrough finally arrived on 78 minutes. From a corner, Chadi Riad picked out Soufiane Rahimi, who lashed a right-footed finish into the top-right corner from the centre of the box. For the first time all night Morocco led, and this time the advantage would not be surrendered. The relief around the stadium was palpable, the sense of a natural order restored.

Set-piece dominance had been the difference-maker, and it would prove telling again. With the game stretched and Haiti pushing bodies forward in search of another equaliser, Morocco found the space to counter and kill it off. The two-goal cushion that had once belonged to the underdogs now beckoned for the favourites.

On 89 minutes the fourth arrived, Rahimi turning provider for Gessime Yassine, who steered a left-footed finish into the centre of the goal from close range. It was the goal of a team fully in control, the punctuation mark on a remarkable turnaround. From two down to four scored, Morocco had delivered the sort of response that defines tournament runs.

What it means

For Morocco, this is three points earned the hard way, and perhaps all the more valuable for it. Teams that can win badly, that can dig themselves out of a hole of their own making, tend to travel far in a World Cup. The performance carried flaws, most obviously the fragile opening, but the character on display will reassure far more than the errors will worry. Hakimi's fingerprints were all over the recovery, one goal and two assists from a defender operating at the peak of his powers.

Haiti will leave Atlanta with heartbreak but also with heads held high. To lead a side of Morocco's calibre twice, to play with such conviction on this stage, is no small thing. The chastening truth of the scoreline is that fine margins, chiefly that stoppage-time equaliser, tilted an evening that had been theirs for long stretches. There is pride to be salvaged from the ruins of the result.

The shape of Group C now tightens around this outcome. Morocco announce themselves as a side to be reckoned with, capable of both alarming vulnerability and ruthless finishing. Haiti must regroup quickly, for a tournament rarely waits for the wounded. On this evidence, though, they will not be a soft touch for anyone. Morocco move on, chastened by the start but emboldened by the finish, knowing they possess the firepower to punish and the nerve to endure.