6 Records from Morocco's Qualification to the World Cup Quarterfinals

The Moroccan national team wrote its name in golden letters in Arab sports history after it qualified for the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Where Morocco was able to qualify for this stage, after its victory over Spain on penalties, 3-0, after the end of the match in the original and extra time with a goalless draw.

Thanks to this qualification, Morocco achieved 5 historical records in the World Cup:

1- Morocco is the first Arab team ever to reach the quarterfinals in the history of the World Cup.

As the best Arab results in the previous World Cups were reaching the round of 16, the Arab teams could not pass this round before.

Morocco itself reached the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals after losing 1-0 to West Germany.

In the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Saudi Arabia reached the 16th round, losing to Sweden 3-1. Algeria also reached the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to the 16th round, losing to Germany 2-1 after extra time.

2-Morocco has become the fourth African team to be in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, as it was preceded by 3 teams from the African continent.

Cameroon was the first African team to qualify for the quarterfinals of the World Cup, in the World Cup Italy in 1990, then Senegal in the World Cup South Korea and Japan in 2002, and Ghana in the World Cup South Africa in 2010, so Morocco came and achieved the achievement in the 2022 edition.

3- Walid Regragui, coach of the “Atlas Lions”, is the first Arab and African coach to be in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

4- Morocco became the first African team to defeat Spain in the World Cup since Nigeria in 1998 when the "Green Eagles" won 3-2.

5-Yassine Bono, the Moroccan goalkeeper, became the first Arab goalkeeper in history to save two penalty kicks during a World Cup match.

6- Spain is the team that lost the most matches by penalty kicks in the history of the World Cup (4 times), and the second team that doesn't score any penalty kicks after Switzerland, which failed to score against Ukraine in the 16th round of the 2006 World Cup.

It is worth noting that the Morocco national team will face Portugal in the quarter-final match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup on the tenth of December. The match will be hosted by Al-Thumama World Cup Stadium at 6:00 pm Mecca time.

This article was previously published on qatarmoments. To see the original article, click here