The first African and Arab nation to make it to the World Cup semifinals, Morocco made World Cup history on Saturday night when they stunned Portugal 1-0 to continue their unexpected run in Qatar.
Just before halftime at the Al-Thumama Stadium, Youssef En-Nesyri leaped high in the air to head home the game’s lone goal, striking a significant blow against football’s established order and securing a semi-final matchup on Wednesday against either England or France, who will face off later on Saturday.
In Africa and the Arabic-speaking Middle East, where fans are eager to see one of their teams competing for football’s top prize, the outcome will be widely celebrated.
In this tournament, Morocco had already defeated Belgium and Spain, but the victory over Portugal is much more significant.
Morocco is the first African team to advance to the World Cup semifinals; the other three African teams that reached the quarterfinals all lost their matches at this point (Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002, and Ghana in 2010).
In addition to being a missed opportunity against the tournament’s lowest-ranked team, Portugal’s performance will be remembered as Cristiano Ronaldo’s disappointing farewell match at the age of 37.