Morocco’s historic run into the semi-finals of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup sent waves of celebrations across the world, with Nigerians among the cheerleaders of the first African country to reach the last four of the tournament, after beating Portugal 1-0 on Saturday.
Striker Youssef En-Nesyri scored the winning goal in the first half, leaping highest to beat Portugal’s goalkeeper Diogo Costa to spark pandemonium at Al Thumama Stadium.
As the North Africans enjoyed huge support inside the stadium, so it was on the internet, as their breakthrough attracted millions of mentions across different social media platforms.
Nigerians were not left out in the celebration of the Moroccans’ feat.
NFF’s Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen sent warm wishes to Morocco.
He tweeted, “Congratulations Walid Regragui and the entire nation of Morocco. shukran jazilan lak!”
A Nigerian journalist, Fisayo Dairo, also tipped Morocco to make it to the final amid the support the team enjoyed in Qatar.
“Morocco’s win has changed the entire prediction trajectory because I’m not sure England nor France can beat this team. Morocco fans are the noisiest in the tournament. Wow! Now I see why Nigerian teams can’t cope against them. You don’t go from a maximum of 5k fans to go to this organized chant of over 50k fans for 90 minutes and cope with it,” Dairo wrote in separate tweets.
Ace sports analyst Godwin Dudu-Orumrn wrote on Facebook, “Qatar’22: Portugal lule. Morocco qualifies for semi-finals of the World Cup. The first African country to reach this stage of the competition. Fantastic performance.”
Football administrator Alloy Chukwuemeka added, Victory for Morocco. Victory for Africa. Congratulations!!!”
“I will be going to Morocco to welcome the Atlas Lion next week,” Abuja-based sports journalist Sylvanus Ofekun, added.
US-based Nigerian coach Terry Eguaoje, added, “Congratulations Morocco. Congratulations Africa.”
