Morocco Futbol History

Morocco+Futbol+History

Diego Navarro, Staff Writer

On December 10t, 2022 Morocco’s futbol team was set against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal futbol team in the Semi-finals of the World Cup.

Morocco’s fairytale run to make it to the quarterfinals was fascinating as they tied with Croatia and defeated Belgium, Canada, Spain going into the match on December 10.  They were the underdogs of the group stage and when they entered the quarter finals. No one even expected them to even make it out of the group stage. The Spain and Morocco game was intense leading the game into extra time and then to penalties which Morrocco came on top. It wasn’t until Spain missed all of their penalties and Morocco made two.

The right-back  Achraf Hakimi scored the goal to make Morrco win the quarterfinals and also make history. Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was the national hero on that day to beat Spain as he blocked the penalties to lead them towards victory. They made history by becoming the first African nation and first Arab nation to reach a World Cup semifinal.

It was also their first time in history that they even reached the quarterfinals in the World Cup.

On December 14, Morocco now had to face France in the semi-final to make it to the final of the World Cup. France was the last winner of the World-Cup back in 2018, when they beat Croatia 4-2 in an unbelievable game, as Kylain Mbappe was the youngest of the squad and made history that whole tournament. 

So Morocco was now facing a squad with experience and skill. On December 14, they put up a good fight against France, but France being the more skillful team in the tournament won 2-0 that day.

But other than that everyone was happy for Morocco for making it that far in the tournament and how well they played to get into the semi-finals.