Morocco creates the sensation: For the first time in the history of the World Cup, an African team has reached the semi-finals. A very special moment for the team, the country and an entire continent.
Youssef En-Nesyri is not one of the biggest names in world football. But in the 42nd minute of the quarter-finals between Morocco and Portugal, the Sevilla FC center forward made himself immortal. In Morocco, in the Arab world, on the African continent.
He spiraled into the air to an almost inhuman height and headed the ball into the net. His goal to make it 1-0 marked the lead that Portugal couldn’t counter. That certainly would have earned him the Player of the Game award.
But it went to his goalkeeper Bono, En-Nesyri’s team-mate from Sevilla FC, who once again kept the goal clean. But Bono insisted and later presented the trophy to the winning goal scorer. It shows that the award belongs to the whole team – from the goalkeeper to the centre-forward.
Regragui: “For our people, for us, for Africa”
An architect of success is Morocco national coach Walid Regragui. “We made history for Africa. Africa is on the football map“, he said after the game full of pathos and emotion. For him it was the team’s performance: “We used our capital, we were a team, we had the mentality.Later at the press conference, Regragui compared his team to one of the greats in sports film history: “We’re the Rocky of the World Cup!”
It was the right attitude for the Moroccan coach”for our people, for us, for Africa”. African coaches have always had it difficult: “You don’t think we can deal tactically with teams like that“, says Regragui.
For a long time, the prejudice was: African teams only enjoy playing, but in terms of defense and tactics in general they have too big deficits. For this reason, all African teams have ended in the quarterfinals so far. This could finally be cleaned up.
Morocco remains a pioneer
It is not the first time that Morocco have achieved something at a World Cup that no African team has ever achieved. In 1970, the “Lions of Atlas” became the first African team to score in a tournament. In 1986, they became the first African team to reach the knockout stages. And now, 36 years later, the first semifinals followed.
So far, however, Morocco has tried in vain to host a World Cup. The North Africans have failed to convince FIFA five times already: the first World Cup in the Arab world is now taking place in Qatar, and the first on African soil was the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
From back then, in addition to the vuvuzelas, “Waka Waka”, the World Cup song by the Colombian superstar Shakira, also stuck in the ear. The singer with Lebanese roots also had to think about that in 2022. After moving in, she tweeted a special line from her song as a congratulation: “This time for Africa!” – This time for Africa!