He wrote a new history for the Arabs and Africa and reached the golden square of the World Cup

Morocco conquers the "world's elders"... and Portugal is a "new victim"

• Goalkeeper Yacine Bounou played the starring role and protected Morocco's net against Portugal's strongest strikers.

  A.F.B

• Sofiane Boufal celebrates with his mother after qualifying for the semi-finals. Reuters

• Al-Nusiri flies with joy and celebrates with Hakimi after the historic goal that knocked out Portugal in the quarter-finals.

  Reuters

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The Moroccan national team scored a historic achievement and became the first Arab and African team to reach the golden square of the World Cup, after its exciting victory over its Portuguese counterpart 1-0, yesterday, at Al-Thumama Stadium in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar.

The Moroccan national team owes credit for this victory to Youssef Al-Nusairi, the Spanish striker of Seville, who scored the decisive goal in the 42nd minute.

The Moroccan national team will play the Golden Square match next Wednesday.

Three African teams have previously reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, namely Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010), but the Atlas Lions became the first Arab and African team to qualify for the semi-finals.

The Moroccan national team maintained its position as the strongest line of defense in the World Cup in Qatar, conceding only once.

Morocco presented a distinguished march in the World Cup in Qatar, as it topped its group with seven points from a goalless draw with Croatia, then beat Belgium 2-0 and Canada 2-1, then the historic penalty shootout victory over Spain in the round of 16.

For the second consecutive match, Fernando Santos, coach of the Portuguese national team, decided to keep Ronaldo on the bench and rely on Goncalo Ramos from the start against Morocco.

Ronaldo was on the bench in the round of 16 match against the Swiss national team last Tuesday, which ended with Portugal winning 6-1.

The Moroccan and Portuguese teams met twice before in the World Cup, and the first ended with Morocco winning 3-1 in the group stage of the 1986 World Cup, then Portugal won 1-0 in the 2018 World Cup.

The Moroccan national team entered the match with a cautious performance at the beginning, but soon entered the atmosphere of the match quickly and began to match its Portuguese rival in attacks.

Led by Joao Felix and Gonzalo Ramos, with Bruno Fernandez alongside them, the Portuguese national team tried to score an early goal, but was surprised by a strong defense from Jawad Al Yamak and Roman Sayes, along with the brilliance of goalkeeper Yassin Bono.

In the 30th minute, Joao Felix hit a ball from outside the penalty area, but it hit defender Jawad Al-Yamiq and almost hit Bono's net, turning into a corner kick that did not result again.

Sofiane Boufal hit a ball from outside the penalty area, but goalkeeper Diego Costa caught it easily in the 34th minute.

In the 42nd minute, the Moroccan national team succeeded in scoring the goal of progress through Youssef Al-Nusairi, when he received a cross from his colleague Atiyat Allah, to direct it with a header into the net the moment goalkeeper Diego Costa came out to catch it.

The remaining minutes of the first half did not witness anything new, so the referee blew the final whistle, with Morocco advancing 1-0.

With the start of the second half, Cristiano Ronaldo came on for Ruben Neves, while Joao Cancelo came on for Rafael Guerrero.

The Portuguese national team seemed more dangerous in the minutes following the arrival of this duo, while the Moroccan national team was forced to make an emergency substitution with the exit of the injured Roman Sayess and the entry of Ashraf Dari.

In the 59th minute, Gonzalo Ramos rose to a high ball from the right, to direct it with a header, but it passed next to the right post of Yassin Bono.

Bruno Fernandez hit a powerful ball from the edge of the penalty area, but Yassin Bono caught it brilliantly in the 65th minute.

Portugal tried to implement a corner kick in a different way, when Cancelo played it on the ground towards Bernardo Silva in front of Bono's goal, but the latter did not catch it in the 72nd minute.

In the 75th minute, substitute Walid Chedira missed the opportunity to score the second goal for the Moroccan national team, after a wonderful sentence and a distinguished exchange of balls between Moroccan players, but Chedira did not improve his control in front of Diego Costa's goal.

Yassin Bono saved a dangerous opportunity from Joao Felix, who hit a powerful ball in the 81st minute, to deflect it into a corner kick that did not result in a new one.

In the second minute of calculated time instead of lost, the referee showed the red card in the face of Walid Chedira, the Moroccan striker, so that the team completed the match with ten players.

The Moroccan team managed to maintain its lead until the referee blew the final whistle, winning 1-0.

To view an electronic supplement .. the World Cup teams, 

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