For the first time in the current World Cup in Qatar, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, congratulates any team that won, but the precedent was with the Atlas Lions.
???????????????? Congrats Morocco!! ????????????????
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022
“historic achievement”
In addition, the Moroccan national team wrote its name in the history books and sparked a new resounding surprise by qualifying for the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup, in an achievement that is the first of its kind for an Arab or African team, by winning 1-0 over former European champions Portugal in the quarter-finals in Qatar, today. Saturday.
Morocco striker Youssef Al-Nusairi scored the only goal of the match with a close-range header after a cross from Yahya Atiyatallah in the 42nd minute.
And Yassin Bono, the Moroccan goalkeeper, excelled in saving his own goal from more than one opportunity, to lead his country to a historic achievement in front of more than 40,000 spectators at Al-Thumama Stadium, most of whom were Arab fans.
We wrote history for Africa
“We wrote history for Africa,” said Morocco coach Walid Regragui. He added in a quick interview on the side of the field, “Once again, we faced a big team.. Portugal is a big team, and you saw the injuries, including (Nasir) Mazraoui and captain (Roman) Sais, but whoever remained of the team fought with this mentality and in front of this audience that follows us.”
Morocco, which was participating in the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time in its history, will play in the semi-finals against the winning team from today’s match between defending champions France and England.
In the other semi-final match, Argentina will play Croatia.
For the second consecutive match, Portugal coach Fernando Santos decides to sit captain Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench, and Portugal’s historic top scorer participated early in the second half.
“painful exit”
“It took us a long time to get into the atmosphere of the game,” Santos said. “The players wanted to, but they couldn’t.”
“The players were very confident and wanted to win, but in reality they couldn’t show their level throughout the match,” he added.
“We didn’t take advantage of the chances to score. Exiting the World Cup always hurts,” the Portugal coach added.