Fans, almost all of whom cheered for Morocco, beat drums and cheered their nation on.
When the Moroccan anthem played, they stood and sang, hand over heart. When French wunderkind Kylian Mbappé flashed on the screen, the boos were relentless.
“We still can’t believe it sometimes,” said Benamrane, who is from Morocco’s capital, Rabat. “There always is a lot of disappointment in the Morocco soccer team … Making it this far is fun. It’s so good. It’s all the disappointment from all those years that got switched into happiness.” But for Moroccans, this semifinal game — the furthest a country from that part of the world has ever gone in the World Cup — meant more than a win or a loss.
Fans line up outside of a watch party for a World Cup semifinal at the University of Ottawa on Wednesday.While that wasn’t the case, much of the world had rallied around Morocco, the small African underdog without much international influence making waves in the world of soccer.Article content
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