Exciting news: Morocco beats Portugal to become the first African country to ever qualify for the World Cup semi-final. This is a history that Africans and the Moroccans in particular will never leave to forget.
In a match where the Portuguese side had total domination in terms of ball possession, the Moroccan side managed to score (Youssef En-Nesyri ) the goal of victory in the 42 minutes of play.
Defending relentlessly and exhibiting great skill on the break, the Atlas Lions roar into the final four thanks to En-Nesyri’s magnificent first-half header. Even with several injuries to contend with, they delight their hordes of noisy fans and having eliminated Belgium, Spain and now Portugal, a high-stakes clash with England or France awaits
Portugal has been eliminated from a World Cup quarter-final match for the first time in their history, having previously progressed from their two other matches at this stage (5-3 v DPR Korea in 1966 and 3-1 in a penalty shootout v England in 2006).
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has failed to score in all eight of his knockout stage appearances at the World Cup (inc. third place play-off), going 570 minutes without scoring and taking 27 shots in the process.
The latest member of the European establishment to become victims of Morocco at these finals, Portugal painfully exits the World Cup. While surely bringing the curtain down on the international careers of Pepe and Ronaldo, their new generation has at least shown enough promise to target victory at Euro 2024. Meanwhile, their quarter-final conquerors march on!
The Moroccan will now have to wait for the results of the match that will oppose France against England to know their opponents for the Semi-final.