Morocco becomes first African country to reach semifinals of FIFA World Cup
Morocco has become the first country in Africa to reach the semifinals in the history of the FIFA World Cup after beating European side Portugal in Qatar’s tournament.
People in Morocco and Moroccans around the world will be celebrating over the milestone in football having defeated Portugal 1-0 in quarter-finals clash to reach semifinals in Qatar’s World Cup.
Morocco’s victory came after Spanish-base Youssef En-Nesyri who plays his football for Laliga side Sevilla headed home in the first half as Portugal’s push for the equalizer was curbed by the North Africans.
As one of the heavyweights in African football, Morocco have struggled in recent AFCON competitions and their latest appearance in Cameroon 2023 ended at the quarter-finals stage following 2-1 loss to finalists Egypt.
Their AFCON performance in Cameroon wasn’t a campaign to make them one of the African sides heading to Qatar with expected high World Cup hopes despite smooth journey in the WC finals’ qualifiers.
But the North African country surprise and beat off Pre-World Cup expectation to not just qualifying out of Group F but topping standings that consisted of tournament favourites Croatia and Belgium.
Morocco have managed to draw against Croatia who eliminated Brazil, beat Belgium and Spain on their way to meeting Portugal in the quarter-finals.
Before today’s game no African side had reached the last 4 of the World Cup with the likes of Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Morocco themselves featuring in previous World Cup quarter-finals.
They broke Portugal’s heart in stoppage time of the first half when En-Nesyri rose above Portugal’s defense to head home with a fine finish.
With the quarter-final victory, Morocco will now face either England or defending champions France in the semifinals of the World Cup.
Morocco hold a big record in this competition as one of the only two countries of the 32 nations (along with Croatia) to remain unbeaten up to the last-4 of Qatar’s World Cup.
