Morocco are the story of the World Cup again as the Atlas Lions reach the last eight

Morocco have done it again. A 3-0 win over Canada on Saturday carried the Atlas Lions into the World Cup quarter-finals, and it came with a slice of history attached. No African side had ever reached the last eight of a World Cup more than once. Morocco have now done it in back-to-back tournaments, four years after their run to the semi-finals in Qatar.

The story of this particular night was Azzedine Ounahi. The midfielder ghosted into space to sweep home Achraf Hakimi’s delivery for the opener, then popped up again on a second-half break to make it two. Soufiane Rahimi added a third deep into stoppage time, and by then the co-hosts were long beaten, the raucous Moroccan support that has followed this team from city to city across North America already in full voice.

A campaign built on nerve

Morocco have not had the smoothest passage, and that is part of what makes the run stand out. They were drawn in a Group C that also contained Brazil, and the two sides could not be separated when they met, a 1-1 draw that told you plenty about Morocco’s willingness to stand toe to toe with anyone. Wins over Scotland and Haiti followed, and only goal difference kept them behind Brazil at the top of the group.

The knockout rounds asked harder questions. Against the Netherlands, Morocco fell behind, dragged the tie level late, and then held their nerve in a penalty shootout that could have gone either way. Yassine Bounou, so often the man for these occasions, produced the save that mattered, and Ismael Saibari kept his composure to convert the decisive kick. It was the sort of win that can define a tournament, the kind that tells a squad it belongs.

Hakimi and the spine of the side

At the heart of it all is Hakimi, wearing the armband and playing with the freedom of a full-back who fancies himself as an attacker whenever the chance arrives. His delivery set up the first against Canada, and his energy down the right has been a constant. Around him, Ounahi has grown into the tournament, Bounou has offered the calm of a goalkeeper who has seen everything, and the whole team carries the sense of a group that has been here before and is not overawed by the stage.

There is a wider significance too. Morocco’s 2022 run was framed as a breakthrough for African and Arab football, a first semi-final for either. What is happening now feels less like a surprise and more like a standard the team has set for itself. Reaching the last eight twice in a row is not a fluke. It is a programme that has decided this is simply where it expects to be.

France, and a rematch four years in the making

Waiting in the quarter-final are France, and the pairing carries obvious history. The two met in the semi-final four years ago in Qatar, where France came out on top on their way to the final. Morocco will not need much reminding of that evening, and a knockout tie against the same opponent, with a place in the semi-finals on offer again, is about as loaded as a fixture gets.

France arrive as one of the favourites, packed with attacking talent and carrying the swagger of a side that expects to go deep every time. Morocco arrive as the team nobody wants to draw, hard to break down, dangerous on the counter, and backed by a support that turns every venue into something close to a home crowd. On paper France are the stronger squad. On the evidence of the last two World Cups, that has never been quite enough to write Morocco off.

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