Morocco

Morocco beat Spain to reach the World Cup 2022 quarter-finals. Fans back in the country could barely believe it.

“Spain is gone, who is next” was a common phrase shouted across the country. “Football has united all these nations under the Moroccan flag.” He praised the national team “who gave their all and blazed a trail throughout this great sporting event”. “We are so proud of our Lions, who fought hard to get us into the quarter-finals,” Niama Meddoun, a Rabat resident, said. “What a great day to be a Moroccan,” Abdessamad told Al Jazeera in Marrakesh. And it was a feeling not lost on Moroccans back home.

England, of course. And all the colonies and places to which Europe exported the game, not in some noble effort but to impose European aesthetics and ...

The United States has not won a World Cup knockout match since 2002, when it beat regional rival Mexico in the round of 16 in South Korea. Today’s WorldView: The 2022 World Cup has faced a cascade of controversies since Qatar won the right to host it more than a decade ago. [Most of those](https://qz.com/the-immigrants-world-cup-see-all-the-players-who-cros-1849840305) suited up for one of the African continent’s five teams. For example, Ghana’s Thomas Partey is said [to have a Spanish passport](https://ghanaguardian.com/athletico-madrids-thomas-partey-has-a-spanish-passport) but has continued to represent his birth country, the first African nation to free itself from British rule, in the World Cup. His younger brother Nico, however, who was born in Pamplona, starred for the Spanish side that Morocco’s Spanish-born players helped eliminate Tuesday. After being in Asia for the first time in 2002, in Japan and South Korea. And more frequently now, foreign-born players of African descent, such as [Spanish-born Inaki Williams](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/23/inaki-williams-playing-for-ghana-allows-me-to-get-closer-to-my-roots), are choosing to play for their ancestral homes. And it should be a celebration of the world’s athletes, not just those in Europe. [playing now for its birthplace, or origin](https://qz.com/the-immigrants-world-cup-see-all-the-players-who-cros-1849840305), rather than for a European colonist from which that birthplace may have liberated itself, often in brutal struggles. And no team from outside Europe or South America has played in a World Cup final. After being in Africa for the first time in 2010, in a liberated South Africa. For as Michael Murphy, a Queen’s University political scientist reminded in a recent paper on soccer in Africa, the game was “introduced into the African colonies by the Western capitalist colonial powers in an effort to make manageable the populations of the newly conquered territories.

Morocco becomes the first Arab nation ever to reach the World Cup quarterfinals after dumping former champion Spain in a last 16 penalty shootout.

I’m very sorry about the result but I congratulate Morocco.” It was the fourth time Spain have been knocked out of the World Cup on penalties and the second in a row. “We honored the Arab and African football, coach Regragui gave us the confidence that we needed in this game, a big boost in morale,” he said. “We fought and made the Moroccan people happy, we made history and Morocco deserve it, Moroccan people made us united on the pitch,” coach Walid Regragui said. The Spanish-born Hakimi chipped in the decisive penalty, prompting a deafening roar of joy and celebration from the Morocco supporters, after their side became the first Arab nation ever to qualify for the tournament’s quarterfinals. After a scrappy match finished 0-0 after extra time with few shots on target for either side, Morocco fed off the raucous support of their red-clad fans in the shootout as Spain crumbled.

Morocco became only the fourth African country to reach the quarterfinals at the biggest soccer tournament in the world by beating Spain 3-0 in a penalty ...

An earlier headline on this story incorrectly said Morocco was the first African country to make it to the World Cup's round of 8. The team played 120 minutes against Russia and in all three of its knockout games at Euro 2020. so no matter how much we say that we deserved to win for the chances we created and for playing more in their area, it is not going to change anything," Simón said. Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana are the only other African nations to reach the World Cup quarterfinals. But the first three were my decision, and I would've done the same thing again. Abdelhamid Sabiri and Hakim Ziyech, who returned to the national team after a dispute with the previous coach, also scored for Morocco.

Morocco is just the fourth African team in history to reach the last eight of the FIFA World Cup.

Atlas Lions dumped out mighty Spain on penalties to become 1st Arab country to ever reach World Cup quarterfinals - Anadolu Agency.

[Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Heading into the Dec. The 21-year-old Benfica striker was handed a start in place of captain Cristiano Ronaldo against Switzerland, and repaid Fernando Santos’ faith with a blistering hattrick, the first of this World Cup. He has five goals in four matches, two ahead of a raft of players also still in the competition. For a spot in the semifinals, Morocco will face a Portugal team buzzing with confidence after a scintillating 6-1 hammering of Switzerland. The North Africans did the unthinkable when they dumped out mighty Spain, one of the pre-tournament favorites, in a penalty shootout win that will live on forever in World Cup folklore.