Until the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup 2022, which he reached by defeating Spain on penalties;
The march of the Moroccan national team seems inspiring by all standards. In addition to being the first Arab team to reach this achievement in the history of the competition, it has achieved many gains and numbers, revealed by the heroic match in which it faced Spain, the 2010 World Champion.
Historic qualification with clean sheets
And the Spanish newspapers - which spoke extensively about the match and praised what it considered the fighting spirit of the Atlas Lions - revealed exciting statistics for the Moroccan national team, which made it enter the competition records.
The Mundo Deportivo newspaper said that the Moroccan national team became the second team in the history of the World Cup to qualify for the quarter-finals by penalty kicks without conceding even one goal at the two times: the original and the extra time, as well as in the penalty shootout share.
And at the Education City Stadium, the match was settled without goals in the original and extra time, so the two teams resorted to a penalty shootout, in which the Moroccan team said its word (3-0) thanks to the brilliance of goalkeeper Yassin Bounou, who saved two penalty kicks, while the post blocked the first strike. for Spain.
Ukraine was the only national team that had previously achieved a similar achievement, by qualifying for the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup without conceding goals in the match or in a penalty shootout.
"Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bono excelled against Spain, as his net was not conceded in any of the penalty shootouts by Luis Enrique's children, to sign Morocco on a statistic that goes down in history," Mundo Deportivo said.
But the Moroccan statistics did not stop there, as the Atlas Lions team succeeded in leaving 3 out of the 4 matches it played - so far in Qatar - with a clean sheet.
Morocco's solidity and defensive strength, which led it to make history, emerged in strong confrontations against the seniors of the old continent, as it tied with Croatia - the runner-up of the 2018 edition - without goals at the opening of its World Cup participation in Group F, then defeated Belgium - the third World Cup in Russia 2018 - (2 Zero), before conceding a single goal against Canada in a match won by Onahi's colleagues (2-1), then it was Spain's turn, which was dominated by the Moroccans after 120 minutes of excitement.
And keeping clean sheets in 3 out of 4 matches is an advantage and an impressive number for the Atlas Lions, according to the Spanish newspaper.
For its part, the newspaper “AS” indicated that “at the end of the first stage, the French coaches Arsene Wenger and the German Jurgen Klinsmann presented a technical vision for the first round matches, and they reached a very clear result, which is that playing in the depth of the defense no longer works.” And that resorting to the corridors has become the solution to break through the defense and score goals.
The newspaper said, "All of this Spain did not do against Morocco, or did it late, which benefited Morocco defensively, and the midfielders, especially Amrabat, benefited to impose his control on the middle of the field."