Atlas Lions’ roar shakes up the world Premium

The African and Arab world found a uniting force in Morocco which made a historic run to the semifinals in Doha, shocking the big guns and exceeding expectations

Before its beginning, the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar had made the headlines for many reasons. Now that the tournament is done and dusted, one country that has risen from the ashes is Morocco.

Atlas Lions became the first African country to qualify for the semifinals and, on its way, beat Spain (2010 World champion) and Portugal (2016 Euro champion).

Cristiano Ronaldo – perhaps one of the best to ever play the sport and someone who has 819 career goals to his name – left the pitch in tears as millions roared from the streets of Marrakesh to Souq Waqif in Doha.

Morocco had come into the World Cup, drawn in a group with the runner-up and third-placed team from the 2018 World Cup - Croatia and Belgium respectively.

It began its campaign with a goalless draw against the Croats before shocking Belgium. Captain Romain Saiss opened the scoring in the 73rd minute before Zakaria Aboukhlal sealed the contest in the second half of injury time.

After that, it went on to win every match until the semifinal, starting with a victory over Canada, and a penalty-shootout win over Spain in the round of 16, thanks to two heroic saves by Yassine Bounou and an apropos panenka by Achraf Hakimi.

Against Portugal, Youssef En-Nesyri, the Sevilla forward who had no LaLiga goals this season, scored his second goal of the tournament, almost emulating Ronaldo’s famous header against Sampdoria as the former watched from the bench.