When the whistle blew at the end of Morocco’s match against Portugal in Doha on Saturday, marking the North African country’s victory, cheers resounded across the African continent.
Nationalism abounds at the World Cup. Throughout the tournament in Qatar, though, Morocco head coach Walid Regragui has cast his team as representative of all of Africa.
“I’m not here to be a politician, we represent Morocco and obviously Morocco and Moroccans are my priority,” the French-born former Moroccan national team player told reporters earlier in the tournament. “But obviously, we’re also African like Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon and Tunisia, so we hope to fly the flag of African football high.”on the streets of Casablanca in celebration. Cheers could be heard throughout downtown Cairo, where fans crowded into cafes and drivers beeped in celebration.
On social media, some fans began recirculating pop star Shakira’s theme song for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, “Waka Waka .”Morocco will face either France or England — depending on which team prevails in their quarterfinal match today — on Wednesday. The winner of that game secures a spot in the final on Dec. 18.
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