Morocco coach Walid Regragui repeatedly hailed his players' fighting spirit and the passionate support of the crowd but warned his side had "achieved nothing" even after their shock 2-0 World Cup win over Belgium on Sunday.
Morocco is currently the highest-ranked Arab national team in the world with a FIFA Men’s World Ranking of 24. At one time, they were considered to be one of the top national football teams in the world when they were ranked 10th in the world rankings in 1998.
Their best performance to date was in the 1986 World Cup where they reached the round of 16. At that year's tournament in Mexico, they managed to defeat Portugal by 3-1. During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Atlas Lions managed to draw 2-2 with Spain in the group finale.
Traditionally, their rivals are Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, with the latter two not qualifying for the World Cup this year.
Morocco upset the highly ranked Belgians, after holding Croatia to a draw in their first game, to advance to four points and put themselves in the driving seat in Group F with a game against Canada to come.
"Today we have achieved nothing. I know everyone is delighted but I know football and you need to respect the game. I want everybody to be happy now but we need to recover quickly and get back to work.
Canada will be a hard team to play and we have to respect them," the victorious coach told a news conference after the unexpected victory at the Al Thumama Stadium.
"We have to keep fighting, we want to get past this round and go to the next level."
Regragui was effusive in praising his own squad and what he called their "fight".
"We played against one of the best teams in the world with big players, but we know that if you don’t give 100%, it is impossible to win. With these players and these fans, anything is possible."
morocco was urged forward by the encouragement of the vast majority of the 43,738-strong crowd, who gave them added wings as they looks to be tiring.
Regragui said morocco had looked to be cautious initially: "We were humble enough in the first half to defend and know they will have most of the possession. We put in a lot of effort and came out in the second half to play a bit more.
A number of Arab teams have turned Qatar World Cup into a home tournament. Thousands of Saudi fans have traveled by car to Qatar to watch live the first-ever World Cup to be held in the Middle East. “Had it not been in Qatar,” he said, “it would not have been so convenient, or affordable for me to attend a World Cup.”
And had he not made the road journey via the Abu Samra border crossing, he would not have witnessed Saudi Arabia lighting up the tournament with a massive upset against Argentina.
The Green Falcons’ 2-1 over the two-time champions on Tuesday set off wild celebrations, with overjoyed Saudi fans flooding all major tourist attractions and fan zones in Qatar. Quickly, it turned into an all-Middle Eastern party.
“We are not sad that Qatar lost, we are happy that Saudi Arabia won,” said Bassam Muhammad, a Qatari student, as others walked by waving the flags of both countries, which restored full relations in early 2021 after a years-long diplomatic rift. Just hours after the Saudi win on Tuesday, Tunisia pulled its own weight to hold the higher-ranked Denmark to a surprise 0-0 draw at the Education City Stadium.
Most of the more than 40,000 or so fans in attendance were rooting for the team from North Africa. Amine, a Tunisian fan, thinks that the Arab unity on display among the supporters is not strange to see.
Saudi Arabia is competing in its sixth FIFA World Cup and second, in a row, Saudi Arabia is ranked 49 on the FIFA Men’s World Ranking. The nickname of the Saudi Arabian men’s national team is Al-Suqour (The Falcons) and Al-Akhdhar (The Green).
Tunisia will be competing in its sixth World Cup tournament this year in Qatar.
In their first appearance in the 1978 World Cup, Tunisia shocked the world when they managed to defeat Mexico 3-1 and draw with Germany before being eliminated from the tournament after the first round.
The team is referred to as the Eagles of Carthage and is ranked 35 on the FIFA Men’s World Ranking.
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