sport news Mad about Morocco! The Arab world has united behind the giantkillers after ... trends now

sport news Mad about Morocco! The Arab world has united behind the giantkillers after ... trends now
sport news Mad about Morocco! The Arab world has united behind the giantkillers after ... trends now

sport news Mad about Morocco! The Arab world has united behind the giantkillers after ... trends now

Far from the surface gloss and shuttle buses of this World Cup, there was only one word on the lips of those who put their backs into building this entire show last Sunday night: Morocco.

Around 800 immigrant African and south Asian workers had gathered at the cricket stadium in Asiatown, a drab shopping and entertainment district built for them, to see if Senegal could beat England. 

It was as the place emptied, after Bukayo Saka’s goal went in, that they wanted to discuss Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui.

Morocco stunned Spain 3-0 on penalties to seal a place in the World Cup quarter-finals

Morocco stunned Spain 3-0 on penalties to seal a place in the World Cup quarter-finals

‘Morocco — they’re the ones,’ said Ganesh, who is Nepalese and in a workforce which has built hotels here. ‘Ghana are too slow. Senegal are better. But Morocco will carry the flag for us all.’

For once, in this place of obscene economic divides, there is something that the workers and the elusive Qataris, cocooned inside their 4x4s and the lobbies of the five-star hotels, can unite behind. 

With its own hapless team long gone, Qatar is appropriating Morocco — the first Arabic-speaking nation to reach a World Cup quarter-final — as one of its own.

Morocco are the first Arabic-speaking nation to reach a World Cup quarter-final in Qatar

Morocco are the first Arabic-speaking nation to reach a World Cup quarter-final in Qatar

Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani led the way, watching Tuesday’s game in the stadium, giving a thumbs up and holding the Moroccan flag. 

The Doha News trumpeted yesterday how the victorious Moroccan team had paraded the Palestinian flag, an emblem that Qatar and FIFA don’t seem so keen to purge.

The euphoria for the Atlas Lions and their manager Walid Regragui spread through Morocco’s vast diaspora like electricity on Tuesday. 

Morocco fans celebrate at full-time after pulling off a shock upset against Spain in the last-16

Morocco fans celebrate at full-time after pulling off a shock upset against Spain in the last-16

There was an outpouring of joy on the streets of Brussels and in Barcelona’s Raval neighbourhood, where some of the 872,000 Moroccans living in the defeated nation were singing the name of Achraf Hakimi — a match-winner born in Spain.

Tuesday was a national holiday in Spain, marking the anniversary of the day in 1978 when the country voted by referendum for a new constitution.

In the aftermath of defeat, someone edited the Wikipedia page to include the sentence: ‘It will also be remembered as the

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