Friday 9 December 2022 – 12.56pm
By Ahmed Zahran
DOHA, December 9th / WAM / The Morocco national soccer team are looking forward to continuing their journey to brilliance in the 2022 World Cup and achieving one more point in the current World Cup when they meet their Portuguese counterpart tomorrow, Saturday in the quarterfinals. tournament finals, 19:00 UAE time.
The activities of this round will end tomorrow at eleven UAE time, with another high caliber confrontation between the French, reigning champion, and the English, strongly candidate to contend for the title of this edition.
Tomorrow, the match between the Moroccan and Portuguese teams will receive great attention in light of the great achievement that the Moroccan team has achieved so far, which has attracted worldwide attention by achieving an unprecedented Arab success in the first edition of the World Cup which will be held in the Arab and Middle Eastern regions.
It doubled the size of the milestone as the Moroccan national team deservedly arrived at this role through a thorny path full of tough clashes, as their group won the first round at the expense of two big teams, after a draw at clean sheets for the Croatian runner-up at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and a valuable 2-0 victory over their Belgian counterpart, who finished as runners-up. Third in the same version and second seed in the world, as well as beating the Canadian team 2-1.
In the second round, the Moroccan national team was up for a high-calibre confrontation against the Spanish national team, one of the strong candidates for the title in the current version, but passed the test with a valuable negative draw in the original and extra time before win the penalty shootout.
The results indicate that the Moroccan national team’s defense is one of the strongest defense lines in the tournament so far, with their goalkeeper Yassine Bounou also excelling in saving two penalties against Spain, who failed to score for Morocco in either of the 3 penalty kicks it took.
The Moroccan team also managed to impose their style during the difficult matches against Croatia, Belgium and Spain, led by coach Walid Rekragui, where the enthusiasm and abundant commitment of the players, together with the mastery of defense and execution of quick counter-attacks, they were among the most important success factors.
The team is likely to adhere to the same method against the Portuguese national team tomorrow, especially as the latter showed superior offensive skills in their second-round match, in which they defeated the Swiss national team 6-1, with young striker Gonzalo Ramos in the starting lineup at the expense of veteran star Cristiano Ronaldo.
But Ronaldo’s sharing of his vast experience with the enormous skills of the rest of the Portuguese national team could make the matchup more difficult for the Moroccan national team than it is with the Spanish national team.
It is worth noting that the Moroccan national team, in addition to reaching qualification for the quarter-finals, has achieved a record by keeping its unbeaten record in 5 consecutive World Cup matches, including 4 matches in the current World Cup, in addition to last match in the 2018 World Cup, in which they drew 2-2 with their Spanish counterpart.
What is interesting is that the last previous defeat of the Moroccan national team at the World Cup was against the same Portuguese national team in the second leg of the group stage of the 2018 edition, with a clear goal scored by Ronaldo himself, recalling that the only the two teams’ previous encounter at the World Cup ended in Morocco’s 3-1 victory at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, as the Moroccan national team reached the round of 16 for the only time before this World Cup.
The Moroccan national team hopes to repeat the victory over Portugal, to be the way to another unprecedented milestone for Arab and African football.
In tomorrow’s second match, the French national team, the reigning champions, will face a tough test on their way to defending their title, as they will meet their English counterpart, who finished fourth at the 2018 World Cup and the European runners-up at Euro 2020.
Both teams reached the quarter-finals after a strong run in the tournament, which was capped off by the England team with a 3-0 win over their Senegalese counterpart, the African champions, and the French team topping their Polish counterpart 3 -1 in the second round of the tournament, to show that the two teams are among the most powerful attacking teams in the current version.
The England international scored 12 goals on their way to the quarter-finals, despite their goalless first-round match against the United States, while conceding just two goals in their opening match and kept a clean sheet in the first round. last 3 games.
The French national team, on the other hand, has scored 10 goals against 3 conceded in the 4 matches played so far in the tournament.
Therefore, tomorrow’s match is expected to witness a strong attacking game, especially in light of the presence of prominent forwards in the ranks of both teams, led by Kylian Mbappe in the French national team, who is at the top of the table so far of the goalscorers of the tournament with 5 goals, and Harry Kane in the England national team, who scored his first goals in the current World Cup during the second round, but was the top scorer in the last edition of the World Cup with 6 goals.
The England national team is eager to avoid the fate of its crisis in more than one version of the World Cup, which is the quarter-final exit, as it was subjected to it in the 1954, 1962, 1970, 1986 versions , 2002 and 2006.
The two sides are meeting for only the third time in the World Cup, noting that they are first between them in the elimination rounds of the tournament, and the previous two ties were in the group stage when the England team defeated their French counterparts 2-0 in the 1966 edition, which the England team crowned their title and then won again against their French counterparts 3-1 in the 1982 edition in Spain.
Ahmed Al-Boutli / Ahmed Zahran
