Morocco's 2022 World Cup Run: Reliving the Match-by-Match Journey That Made History
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar ended for Morocco in the third-place match. They had lost the semi-final to France, 2-0. They had lost the third-place playoff to Croatia, 2-1. But somewhere between those final two results and the way they got there, something had already changed permanently β both for Moroccan football and for how the entire continent of Africa is viewed on the world's biggest stage.
Morocco became the first African nation and the first Arab nation to reach a World Cup semi-final. They did it with a team built almost entirely of players raised in Europe, committed to a Moroccan shirt because of where their families came from and where their hearts belonged. They did it by keeping clean sheets against some of the most decorated attacking lineups in international football. They did it by scoring in critical moments, from the right players, when the tournament demanded it.
This retrospective goes match by match. It focuses on which Moroccan players made each result happen, what the tactics were, and why each game mattered. It closes with what the 2022 run means for 2026.
Group Stage: Belgium 2-0 (November 27, 2022)
Morocco's first real statement of the tournament came against Belgium in the second group game. Belgium arrived ranked among the top eight sides in the world. Their so-called golden generation β featuring players from Premier League and European club football across every position β had reached the 2018 World Cup semi-final and were considered contenders in 2022.
Morocco won 2-0. It was not a fluke. The performance was controlled, physically intense, and tactically disciplined.
The goals were scored by Romain SaΓ―ss, who headed home from a corner, and Zakaria Aboukhlal, who drove a shot into the net after a turnover near the Belgian box late in the game. Abdelhamid Sabiri had already put Morocco ahead with a direct free-kick that caught the goalkeeper off his line.
The defensive display was as important as the goals. Belgium's midfield β nominally creative β was given very little space to operate. Sofyan Amrabat, playing as a defensive midfielder, provided a physical and technical barrier in front of Morocco's back line that Belgium never found a way around. His ability to win the ball, win it cleanly, and immediately recycle possession under pressure was one of the defining performances of the group stage.
The result shifted the entire group. Belgium, who had been expected to advance comfortably, were suddenly in trouble. Morocco, with six points possible from their remaining two games, were on their way.
Group Stage: Canada Win and Qualifying for the Knockout Rounds
Morocco's other group results secured their place in the round of 16 as group winners. The discipline of the back line, anchored by players who had spent the entire campaign focusing on collective shape over individual expression, was a constant throughout. Yassine Bounou, in goal, was commanding without being tested to his limits in the early group games β a reflection of how well the defence was functioning in front of him.
Qualifying as group winners gave Morocco a favourable positioning in the knockout bracket. They knew who they would face in the round of 16: Spain.
Round of 16: Spain on Penalties (December 6, 2022)
No result in Morocco's entire World Cup campaign was more consequential β or more remarkable β than the round-of-16 victory over Spain on penalties.
Spain in 2022 were the outstanding technical side of the tournament's first round. Their tiki-taka evolution had shifted somewhat toward a more vertical pressing model, but the fundamental principle remained: control the ball, control the game. Against Morocco, they had 75-80% of possession across 120 minutes. And yet they could not score.
That is the Sofyan Amrabat story, written in 120 minutes. As a defensive midfielder, his job was to sit in front of the defensive line and deal with Spain's interior passing combinations. Spain's midfield β players from Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, players who have spent their careers operating in tight spaces β kept finding Amrabat waiting for them. He intercepted, he tackled, he headed, he sprinted to cover. For 120 minutes he was the most important player on the pitch in the most important game of Morocco's history.
Yassine Bounou was the other essential figure. Through 90 minutes, and then through extra time, he made the saves when Spain's moments of quality generated genuine threat. When the game went to penalties, he had already given Morocco's team belief.
Penalties. Spain had Sergio Busquets, Pablo Sarabia, and Carlos Soler step up. Bounou saved two of the three that were not scored. Morocco's takers converted their penalties. The fifth and decisive kick fell to Achraf Hakimi.
Hakimi needed to score to send Morocco through. He ran up and chipped the ball β a Panenka, down the middle, goalkeeper diving away. It went in. Morocco were through to the quarter-finals, having eliminated the most technically accomplished Spain side in years, despite being outpossessed for the entire 120 minutes.
The image of Hakimi celebrating that penalty, and the scenes in Moroccan cities that followed, went around the world.
Quarter-Final: Portugal 1-0 β En-Nesyri's Header (December 10, 2022)
Portugal in the quarter-final carried the weight of being Cristiano Ronaldo's last realistic chance at a World Cup. The emotional narrative around Portugal was enormous. Morocco, who had never been beyond the round of 16 before this tournament, were the "underdog" label attached to almost every pre-match frame.
It was one of the best defensive performances in World Cup quarter-final history.
Portugal had JoΓ£o FΓ©lix, Bruno Fernandes, and Ronaldo as attacking options. They had full-backs who pushed high. They had Bernardo Silva, operating in the spaces between Morocco's midfield and defensive lines. None of it was enough.
The single goal came from Youssef En-Nesyri. It was a header β En-Nesyri rising above Diogo Costa at the near post to meet a cross and direct the ball into the net. The timing of the header, the willingness to challenge physically at full stretch, the precision β it was the type of goal that wins quarter-finals. En-Nesyri had been brought into the team precisely because of this quality: aerial threat, movement in the box, the ability to produce in the most important moments.
Morocco defended for large portions of the second half with Portugal throwing everything forward. The back line held. Bounou was outstanding. When the final whistle came, Morocco were in the semi-finals.
Cristiano Ronaldo walked off the pitch. Morocco's players β many of them knowing his name as children in Moroccan households that loved Real Madrid β had just eliminated him from his last World Cup. The significance was not lost on anyone.
Semi-Final: France 2-0 β The Run Ends (December 14, 2022)
France were the defending champions. They had Kylian MbappΓ©, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann. They were, by any objective measure, the best team at the tournament. Morocco, playing in their first ever semi-final, faced them on December 14.
The result was 2-0 to France. Both goals came from set pieces and corners β the type of situations where individual quality at the top end of the sport is hardest to compensate for defensively. ThΓ©o Hernandez scored first, Randal Kolo Muani added the second.
What Morocco showed in that semi-final, even in defeat, was that they belonged. They competed. They did not concede in open play. They created moments of danger on the counter. If the two goals had not gone in from those specific situations, the game could have gone differently.
The loss to France was not the end of the story. It was a full stop at the end of a sentence, not the sentence itself.
Third Place: Croatia 2-1 β Honour in Defeat (December 17, 2022)
The third-place match against Croatia ended 2-1 in Croatia's favour. Morocco's goal was a consolation that mattered nonetheless β each goal scored, each performance delivered, added to the record that would stand forever. Morocco finished fourth at the 2022 World Cup.
Croatia were excellent opponents β their own tournament run had been remarkable, eliminating Brazil. The physical and emotional toll of the France game, played only three days before, was visible in Morocco's performance. These are the realities of tournament football.
What 2022 Means for 2026
The 2022 World Cup changed what Moroccan players believe is possible. That is not a small thing. In international football, the teams that repeatedly reach deep rounds of major tournaments have a psychological inheritance that younger players absorb. Morocco's squad heading into 2026 includes players who were on the pitch in Qatar and players who watched from their clubs and said: I want that.
Mohamed Ouahbi, now the head coach, won the U-20 World Cup in 2025 with a generation of Moroccan players shaped by watching 2022. The pipeline is real. The belief is real. The tactical principles β defensive organisation, full-back athleticism, quality in midfield β have been carried forward.
In 2026, Morocco go to Group C with Brazil, Haiti, and Scotland. The team is older in some areas, younger in others. The key players from 2022 who remain β Hakimi, Bounou, Mazraoui β are now more experienced. The new additions β Brahim Diaz, El Khannouss, Ezzalzouli β bring qualities the 2022 team did not have.
The 2022 run does not guarantee anything in 2026. Nothing guarantees anything in tournament football. But it established, permanently, that Morocco belong among the top sixteen teams in the world. In Qatar, they proved it. In the United States and Canada, they will try to prove it again.