Qatar 2022: Morocco becomes the 4^th African national team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals

By eliminating Spain in the Round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar (0-0, 3-0 on penalties) on 06/12/2022, Morocco, which was the first African country to reach the last sixteen of a World Cup in 1986, has qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time in its history.

The Atlas Lions are only the fourth team from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to reach this stage of the competition, after Cameroon in 1990 (lost to England), Senegal in 2002 (eliminated against Turkey) and Ghana in 2010 (eliminated by Uruguay). None of these three teams managed to reach the semi-finals.

In addition to Morocco, two other non-European nations have qualified for the quarter-finals, both from CONMEBOL : Argentina, two-time winners of the competition (1978 and 1986), and Brazil, five-time world champions (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002) and quarter-finalists for the eighth time in a row.

As in 2018, the European nations form the largest contingent of teams still in the running with five qualified teams (one less than in Russia): France (twice winners in 1998 and 2018), England…