Buhari Heaps Praises On Morocco Team For Their Historic Outing At The 2022 World Cup In Qatar.

The President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari has on Monday heaped praises on the Atlas Lions of Moroccan World Cup team, and the ruler of the country, King Mohammed the VI on their historic outing in the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar

The Super Eagles had failed to make it to the world's biggest sporting event after losing spot to West African rivals Ghana in the qualifying play-off games in March.

Morocco remains the only one of five African teams to keep the dream alive, as they became the first-ever team from Africa to qualify for a World Cup semi-final.

It’s a seminal moment to savor in the history of the World Cup, with an African nation finally advancing to levels normally only achieved by European or South American teams.

The North African team, achieved that feat by outthinking and battling Portugal in an impressive 1-0 victory at the Al Thumama Stadium on Saturday evening, thanks to an impressive header from Sevilla's forward Youssef En-Nesyri who scored the only goal of the Match just before half-time.

The Atlas Lions had also become the fourth African country to ever qualify for the World Cup quarterfinals after Knocking-out another European powerhouse Spain via penalties in the round-of-16, following a goal less draw in 120 minutes of football last Tuesday.

Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) reached the quarterfinals but did not advance further.

President Buhari, in a congratulatory statement by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, said Morocco has made the entire continent proud with their grit and dexterity, giving hope that an African team can indeed win, and should eventually win the tournament in Qatar.

Buhari further commended the Atlas Lions for their skill and teamwork, stating at the same time that this could not have been achieved without the exemplary role of the Moroccan authorities in putting together a formidable team.

En-route to the semi-finals, Morocco who are  ranked the world's 22nd team going into the tournament, began their supposed group of death campaign with a goalless draw against 2018 World Cup finalist Croatia ranked 12th, before shocking the world by beating the 2nd ranked team Belgium 2-0.

Walid Regragui's men eventually topped the Group F after beating a young promising and talented Canadian side 2-1 in their final group game.

Going into the knock-out stage, the Atlas Lions, defeated Spain who are 7th in the World rankings, and then Knocked-out Portugal ranked the 9th team in the World.

In all of these, What makes Morocco’s run to the last-four of the World Cup even more incredible is that despite facing all these five football giants with dangerous attacking prowess, they are yet to concede a goal against an opposing team so far.

The only goal that was scored against them even came from their own player Nayef Aguerd when he put the ball in his own net against Canada.

This achievement by Morocco, comes as a very piece of good news for the continent as a tenth African team will enter a World Cup qualifying playoff tournament consisting of six countries.

Following the conclusion of the playoffs, the two winning nations will advance to the World Cup in the United States.

In essence, this all means that after years of just making up numbers, Africa is finally growing, as there is a chance that the continent will be represented by up to 10 teams at the next World Cup, which would be double the usual number.