The Atlas Lions of Morocco became only the fourth African side ever to reach the last eight of the FIFA World Cup, 12 years after Ghana did so in South Africa.
The Lions’ victory over Spain via penalties on Tuesday is the first time the North African side have reached this stage of the World Cup.
In the 1986 tournament in Mexico, Morocco qualified for the second round but narrowly lost out to West Germany 1-0.
But after emerging tops in the group stage in Qatar, Morocco played out a scrappy match against Spain, finishing the encounter in a 0-0 deadlock after extra time, with few shots on target by either team.
The Moroccans fed off the raucous support of their red-clad supporters in the penalty shootout as pre-match favourites, Spain, crumbled.
Predictably, Spain enjoyed more than 75% of possession and completed almost 800 passes, but Morocco, who went into the match as the underdogs, caused problems for the Iberians on the counter-attack, forcing goalkeeper Unai Simon into a number of good saves.
The eventual 3-1 victory marks the fourth time the 2010 world champions have been knocked out of the World Cup on penalties and the second in a row, following their defeat to hosts, Russia, in 2018.
The Atlas Lions are the only African team left in the tournament, after Ghana, Tunisia, Cameroon and Senegal were all eliminated.
The Moroccans will now face Portugal in Saturday’s quarter-final encounter after the Portuguese soundly defeated a deflated Switzerland side in Tuesday’s second last 16 clash.
