Cristiano Ronaldo’s dream has been shattered. Portugal lost 1-0 to Morocco in his last World Cup.
A slew of stars sat in the queue. All of them nursed big dreams. Of taking their teams to the finals. However, their dreams fell by the wayside, one by one.
Neymar’s dream was broken in the last eight in the World Cup. Germany in the group stage, Spain in the last sixteen. Lionel Messi’s Argentina survived under pressure. However, Cristiano Ronaldo’s dream has been shattered. Portugal lost 1-0 to Morocco in their last World Cup.
Morocco took the lead in the 42nd minute of the first half.
The 25-year-old striker of the team playing in Sevilla, Youssef N Nesri, gave the team the lead with a header.
Portugal, who came to Qatar with a team with great potential in combination of young and senior, could not match that goal.
With that goal, the representatives of Africa reached the semi-finals. History has been made as the only African team in the history of the World Cup to make it to the last four.
Portugal had a great win against the Swiss with Ronaldo on the bench.
Portuguese coach Fernando Santos did the same in the fight to reach the semi-finals. He kept CRSeven on the bench.
Despite dominating the ball in the first half, the European side could not create many chances. They had to be content with one goal and three shots on goal. However, Joao Felix scored a good header early in the match.
37-year-old Ronaldo entered the field as a substitute in the 51st minute of the second half.
The edge increased the fire-power of Portugal. But they couldn’t create a clear chance to break through Morocco’s tight defensive wall.
Ronaldo therefore had to try to equalize with crosses from both wings and shots from distance.
In that attempt, Ronaldo took a good shot from the face of the box. Bernard Silva took a shot on goal from just outside the box. But Moroccan goalkeeper Yassin Bono, playing in Sevilla, evaded it.
With Portugal at their feet, Morocco was waiting for an opportunity to attack in the final third. They also picked up three counter attacks to score.
In between, they lost the chance to score a clear goal before the final whistle. The African team could not send the ball into the net after finding the goal empty.
With this win, Morocco will be looking ahead to the France vs England match in the fight to reach the finals.
They will face the winner of that match.