BEIRUT (AP) — Morocco fans around the Arab world took a hard look at the North African team’s 2-1 loss to Croatia in a third-place tie at the World Cup on Saturday. The team had already made history, becoming the first Arab team and the first African to reach the semi-finals in the international soccer tournament.
Their loss to France on Wednesday dashed fans’ hopes that Morocco would become an underdog champion, but many hoped it would at least take third place against Croatia.
In the Moroccan capital, the team’s supporters were disappointed by Saturday’s loss, but proudly noted the team’s historic performance.
“They are still champions in our eyes,” said Soukaina Makkaoui, a fan in Rabat. “Now they are among the four best teams in the world.”
Ali Hachimi, another Moroccan fan, was proud and sad.
“We would have liked to finish third because the players deserved it after giving it their all,” he said.
Along the way, the Moroccan team captivated many Arab soccer fans who saw the team as a reflection of themselves, with players waving the Palestinian flag after their victories and celebrating on the pitch with their mothers. and kids.
Seeing Palestinian flags fluttering in the stadium “was an indescribable feeling,” said Ibrahim al-Lilli, who was among thousands of fans in the Gaza Strip who gathered to cheer on Morocco on Saturday.
The games claimed that the Arab street “supports the Palestinian cause regardless of what their governments do,” he said, referring to the Abraham Accord normalization agreements that four Arab countries, including Morocco, signed with Israel in 2020.
Fanatics in the besieged enclave of Gaza found bitter solace in the fact that the North African Arab country went as far as it did.
“It’s a defeat, but with a taste of victory and joy,” said Ahmed al-Najjar, another fan in Gaza.
In Beirut’s Tarik al-Jdideh neighborhood, where fans were also rooting for Morocco, Muhammad Shaalan said the team’s fourth-place finish remains a source of pride for the Arab world.
“They reached the final games and beat three of the best big European teams (Belgium, Spain and Portugal),” he said. “I bow my head to them as an Arab team.”
___
Associated Press journalists Fadi Tawil in Beirut, Tarik El Barakah in Rabat, Morocco, and Wafaa Shurafa in Gaza City contributed to this report.
