Morocco celebrate impossible but want more

Morocco beat Portugal 1-0 in Qatar to become the first African or Arab team to reach a World Cup semi-final. "My heart will stop, what a team, what stamina, what an achievement," Ilham El Idrissi, a 34-year-old Casablanca woman, told AFP. She was not alone in hailing the team known as the Atlas Lions. "I think I am dreaming awake. Pinch me! What a huge pride. I thank them from the bottom of my heart," said Mouad Khairat, 29, an executive in a call centre.

"The Moroccan team has managed to do the impossible. We want the cup now." The collective celebrations that greeted the final whistle are becoming a habit across the kingdom. Morocco topped their group, beating Canada and Belgium and then eliminated Spain on penalties in the round of 16 before overcoming Portugal. "There is no such thing as impossible in football, that's the magic of this sport", former Moroccan international Abderrazak Khairi told AFP.

Khairi scored twice in the surprise 3-1 victory over the same opponents, Portugal, in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, when Morocco became the first African nation to reach the knockout rounds. No African or Arab country had managed to go beyond the quarter-finals. Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010 came closest to reaching the final four of the most prestigious tournament.

In Casablanca, the temple of Moroccan football, the shirts of the national team and the red flags with the green star, are everywhere in the windows, the stalls, the markets. Giant frescoes have appeared showing Chelsea attacker Hakim Ziyech and coach Walid Regragui, who has been elevated to the rank of national hero. Regragui took over the team less than three months before the start of the competition after Vahid Halilhodzic was fired. Beyond the borders of the kingdom, the Moroccan team has been cheered in the African continent and the Arab world.

 After the victory over Spain, broadcaster Al Jazeera spoke of "the wave of euphoria" across the Arab world. "Cheers rang out from Tunis, Beirut, Baghdad, Ramallah and other cities as Arabs gathered to rejoice in the largely unexpected victory over Spain - a contrast to the political differences that have long divided Arab nations," the Qatari TV site said.

Weekly publication TelQuel agreed. "It is the World Cup of recovered pride," it wrote. "It is the World Cup of the voiceless who shout their joy and vent their frustration at a newfound visibility and a rehabilitated self-esteem."