Morocco have always been at the forefront of African football. In 1986 they were the first African nation to qualify from the group stages by defeating a European side, Portugal. 36 years later Morocco was to play another historical match in a World Cup quarterfinal to become the first African nation to make it to a World Cup semifnal. And yet again the adversary was Portugal.
But this Portugal, led by the great Cristiano Ronaldo, was considered one of the strongest teams in the world, and had in 2016 won the European championship. The young Diogo Costa, from Porto, had replaced the veteran Rui Patricio as goalkeeper, while defense was led by the ex-Real Madrid, now Porto, Pepe. He was flanked by Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot, Manchester City’s Ruben Dias and Joan Cancelo, PSG’s Danilo Pereira, and Dortmund’s Raphael Guerreiro. There were some fantastic and experienced midfielders: Ruben Neves from Wolverhampton, William Carvalho from Betis, Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United, and the young Vitinha, from PSG. Besides Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo the attacking power included Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva, Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix, AC Milan’s Rafael Leao and the young Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos.
Portugal had not qualified directly to the World Cup. They made second spot behind Serbia in the group stages, and had to go into play-offs, defeating Turkey and North Macedonia to qualify. Despite this, they were still top seeded, and drew a difficult group with Ghana, Uruguay and South Corea. They won the group following victories over Ghana and Uruguay, but losing to South Corea.
They had thus not shown their best, but they certainly did in the last-16; facing the traditionally strong defense of Switzerland, the Portuguese had a field day, winning 6-1, and checking in as one of the favourites for the title as they were to face Morocco in the quarterfinals.
Morocco had returned to the Russia World Cup in 2018 following a pause of 20 years. In Russia they had also faced Portugal in the group stages, losing 0-1, but it was a very different Morocco in 2022. The Bosnian manager Vahid Halilhodžić had taken over the side in 2019, and started using many promising young players as Morocco qualified in awesome style, winning all their group matches and dispatching RD Congo in the final play-off match. Despite the success, the Bosnian manager was fired over disagreements with the Moroccan federation only three months before the tournament, and he was replaced by the French-born ex-player and Wydad Casablanca manager Walid Regragui.
Regragui counted with a squad that was almost entirely Europe-based: on goal was Sevilla’s experienced goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou. The captain of of the team was the veteran Besiktas defender Romain Saiss, alongside one of the best defenders in the world at the time, PSG’s Ashraf Hakimi, as well as Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui, West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd, and Valladolid’s Jawad El Yamiq. On midfield the squad included Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat, Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech, Angers’ Azzedine Ounahi and Sofiane Boufal, Standard Liege’s Selime Amallah, and the young but untried talents Anass Zaroury from Burnley and Bilal el Khannous from Genk. It was not an offensive team, and the few strikers included the Sevilla veteran Youssef-En-Nesyri, another veteran in Al-Ittihad’s Abderrazak Hamdallah, as well as youngster Abde Ezzalzouli from Osasuna and Sampdoria’s Abdelhamid Sabiri. The few Moroccan-based players were from Wydad Casablanca, including Yahya Jabrane and Yahia Attiyat Allah.
By the time they were to face Portugal, Morocco had already pulled outstanding surprises: they had won their group ahead of Croatia, Belgium and Canada by defeating the highly rated Belgians 0-2, Canada 1-2, and tying Croatia. In the last-16 they faced the mighty Spaniards, who had come from losing to Japan, and in a huge upset the won a defensive match after penalty kicks.
So Portugal had been warned, but still entered the match with a degree of arrogance against the African side. Cristiano Ronaldo had not started in against Switzerland, and his young substitute Goncalo Ramos had scored three goals. So Manager Fernando Santos had decided to start with the same lineup, benching Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Moroccans came into the match with energy and perhaps to the Portuguese surprise, with pressure. Already after 5 minutes En-Nesyri missed a big chance following a corner kick, and Morocco had more shots than the Portuguese, except for a Joao Felix shot that the Portuguese player was unlucky did not go into goal after a deflection. Towards the end of the first half En-Nesyiri scored after a cross from Yahia Attiyah Allah, getting high above Pepe in the Portuguese defense, and Morocco were deservedly leading at halftime.
Not much changed in the first minutes of the second half as Morocco had a big chance to score a second goal, and the Portuguese appeared lost. Cristiano Ronaldo came in a few minutes later alongside Joao Cancelo, and the dynamics changed as Portugal put more pressure on the Moroccans, who naturally pulled back and began to rely on their very dangerous counterattacks (they came very close to scoring a second on one of these counterattacks). But strong disciplined defense and a splendid Bonou kept Portugal away. Bonou in particular made a save on a shot from Joao Felix that was perhaps the best save of the entire tournament, and other good saves that gave his defense the necessary tranquility to fight against the Portuguese pressure. In the end it was a strong fight, and a second yellow for Walid Cheddira in the dying second underlined the passion that for the first time ever put an African side in a World Cup semifinal!
Morocco lost 0-2 in the semifinals, and then 1-2 to Croatia in the bronze match, but nothing could erase the historic victories over Spain and Portugal.
Match Stats:
- December 10th, 2022, Al-Thumama Stadium, Qatar
- Attendance: 44,198
- Referee: Facundo Tello (Argentina)
Morocco-Portugal 1-0
Goals: Youssef En-Nesyri (42)
Teams:
Morocco: Yassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Jawad El Yamiq, Romain Saiss (Achraf Dari, 57), Yahia Attiyat Allah; Azzedine Ounahi, Sofyan Amrabat, Selim Amallah (Walid Cheddira, 65, RD, 93), Hakim Ziyech (Zakaria Aboughlal, 82); Youssef En-Nesyri (Badr Benoun, 65), Sofiane Boufal (Yahya Jabrane, 82). Manager: Walid Regragui
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Pepe, Ruben Dias, Diogo Dalot (Ricardo Horta, 79), Raphael Guerreiro (Joao Cancelo, 51); Ruben Neves (Cristiano Ronaldo, 51), Bernardo Silva, Otavinho (Vitinha, 69); Goncalo Ramos (Rafael Leao, 69), Joao Felix, Bruno Fernandes. Manager: Fernando Santos.
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