This one is for the whole of Africa

 

Y'all have made us proud, thank you and all the best in the semifinals against France. Impossibility is nothing. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

I'll happily ignore the talks about the fact they don’t see themselves as Africans, it’s a victory for the entire continent and wherever you are under the sun, Morocco has qualified for the World Cup semifinals and we’ll gloat about it.

England thought it was coming home and has gone home, the top favorites, Brazil has gone home; Spain scored seven times in their World Cup opener and they have gone home, Germany with their fire powers has gone home, Belgium as highly rated as they are have forgotten they went to Qatar, all hail Morocco.

For once in the history of African participation at the FIFA World Cup, the continent will have a representative in the semifinal of the World Cup after Morocco beat Portugal 1-0 on Saturday in their quarter-final bout.

One or two lessons from yesterday? Yes, please! I learned from Ronaldo’s saga that even the best of showmen have days they take the back seat; Ronaldo’s antics, his ill-advised interviews, and vicious glory-hunting led to his unceremonious exit.

It’s also clear that Portugal took things way too far with the supposed punishment. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: “when you’re losing a tug of war to a tiger, you quickly release the rope before it gets to your arm, you can get better ropes in the night or day market, except you’re a fan of prosthetics, you will never get another arm”

Morocco may have benefited from the chaos but the statement made with Ronaldo’s benching in the round of 16 was enough; having him on the bench against the Atlas Lions was at the detriment of the team’s chances and Santos should take the blame too.

Morocco is a low-block team, they don’t give much away and they have quick feet to counter; the long balls and tap-in opportunities would have given Ronaldo joy and Portugal may have won effortlessly. If Ronaldo didn’t know when to stop with his rants, Santos didn’t also know when to stop with his faux discipline.

Moving on to greater things, I am not interested in all the conversations around France’s strength and I’ll allow 90 minutes or 120 minutes to judge the semifinals; Morocco has done this for us and we’ll celebrate without apologies. I’m rooting for them but William Saliba can also win it, I don’t mind.

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