Atlas Lions’ hunt continues

DOHA, December 10

Morocco wrote World Cup history as the first African and Arab country to reach the tournament’s semifinals, continuing their surprise run in Qatar with a shock 1-0 victory over the highly fancied Portugal.

Youssef En-Nesyri leapt high in the air to head home the game’s only goal just before half-time to strike a significant blow against football’s established order.

The result will be widely celebrated across Africa and the Arabic-speaking Middle East, desperate to see one of their teams in contention for the biggest prize in football.

Morocco had already taken the scalps of Belgium and Spain in this tournament but the win over Portugal is of much greater significance.

It was also one of Morocco’s better performances in Qatar, full of determined defending and canny counters, keeping at bay a collection of world stars despite losing key defender Nayef Aguerd to injury before the match and his back-four partner and captain Romain Saiss early in the second half.

Portugal will see it as a missed opportunity against the lowest-ranked side left in the tournament and a disappointing curtain call for the 37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, who walked down the tunnel at the end of the game in tears.

Morocco, again noisily encouraged by the majority of the 44,198-strong crowd, said they were fatigued after their last-16 success over Spain and immediately went into defensive mode as Portugal attacked from the outset.

But it was Morocco who struck when a high ball into the Portuguese box was met by a towering header from En-Nesyri, outjumping both goalkeeper Diogo Costa and defender Ruben Dias.

Ronaldo’s entry in the 51st minute was met with a loud chorus of jeers, but he did inject a new energy into the Portugal side for whom Goncalo Ramos, the hat-trick hero of their 6-1 win over Switzerland in the previous round, missed with a close-in header in the 58th minute.

“It took us a long time to get into the game. The players wanted to, but they couldn’t,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos. “The players were very confident, they wanted it a lot, but the truth is that we weren’t able to show all of our game. Leaving the World Cup always hurts.” — Reuters