Morocco
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Morocco, on Saturday, became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals following a 1-0 win over Portugal.

En-Nesyri’s first-half header secured the victory for Morocco at the Thumama Stadium in Qatar.

En-Nesyri profited on a mistake from Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa to head home the historic strike for not only Walid Regragui’s side – but the entire African continent.

With the victory, the African nation book a semi-final on Wednesday against either England or France, who meet later on Saturday.

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The result will be widely celebrated across Africa and the Arabic-speaking Middle East, desperate to see one of their teams in contention for the biggest prize in football.

Morocco had already taken the scalps of Belgium and Spain in this tournament but the win over Portugal is of much greater significance.

It was also one of Morocco’s better performances in Qatar, full of determined defending and canny counters, keeping at bay a collection of world stars despite losing key defender Nayef Aguerd to injury before the match and his back four partner and captain Romain Saiss early in the second half.

The Star

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