Morocco. This is the name of the big news of the Qatar Cup. The World Cup is not over, but the African country won the sympathy and appreciation of millions due to its positive and unexpected performance.
An African has never gone so far in World Cups, reaching the semifinal stage. Before, Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) stopped in the quarterfinals.
The challenge for Morocco, the first Arabic-speaking nation to progress so far in a World Cup, did not end in the Middle East. There is a chance to go further.
If he defeats France at the Al Bayt stadium this Wednesday (14th), he will be in the final, on Sunday (18th), in Lusail, against Argentina, who overcame Croatia in the first semifinal.
If they surprise once again and eliminate the current world champions, Morocco will be part of a restricted club, which has only eight countries.
They are those who, since the round of 16 were introduced, in Mexico-1986, as the first stage of the elimination system on the way to the decisive game, have gone through all the playoffs: the round of 16, the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
Argentina (1986, 1990, 2014 and 2022), Brazil (1994, 1998 and 2002), Germany (1986, 1990 and 2014), France (1998, 2006, 2018) were effective at this level as “killers”. Italy (1994 and 2006), Spain (2010), the Netherlands (2010) and Croatia (2018).
Many other teams tried to enter this list (the Cup finalists), managing to qualify for the round of 16, but they fell by the wayside against one of these eight teams when they approached the goal, or before,
Some countries hit the beam, being overcome in the semifinals: Belgium (1986 and 2018), England (1990 and 2018), Bulgaria (1994), Sweden (1994), South Korea (2002), Turkey (2002), Portugal (2006) ) and Uruguay (2010).
It is very difficult to be part of this club of successful “killers”, but it is not impenetrable, since Croatia became its newest member four years ago, when it only needed to give the definitive “shot”, in the final, against France.
In favor of Morocco, underdogs against Mbappé and company, there is the recent record, with victories over favorites Belgium, Spain (on penalties) and Portugal, the “insurmountable” defense whose last pillar is goalkeeper Bono (only one goal conceded, and made by an athlete from the team itself) and the strength of the crowd, which in the stadiums has massively supported the North African team.
These are the Moroccan trumps to try to obtain the key to the “Club of Eight”, making it change the name to “Club of Nine”, with an African as a member for the first time.
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