World Cup 2022: Morocco dream over as they are beaten France in semi-final

There was sheer pride as the dream ended.

The surprise run to the semi-finals of the World Cup was capped by a loss to France.

The first African and Arab nation to reach this stage of the competition came up short.

Theo Hernandez's goal after five minutes was the worst start for Morocco as France advanced to the final with a 2-0 win.

Regragui said that they pulled out the stops. It's quite an accomplishment that we caused them problems.

The players gave a good show of their quality. They wanted to change the books.

Hard work is what will get us to the World Cup.

Morocco fans 'have been fantastic'

The Souq Waqif was taken over by fans from the Kingdom of Morocco.

This is the place where fans from all the competing nations congregate, though a France shirt was a rare sight on this occasion.

Extra flights were put on by Royal Air Maroc for the semi-final because of the number of people that traveled.

Others sipped on local karak tea while being interviewed by various TV and radio stations.

They smoked shisha tobacco as they went away to relax.

The small pocket of French fans behind the goal, outnumbered by their counterparts in red shirts, could have been mistaken for a home game in Casablanca.

When the France teamsheet was read out at the start of the game, there was a lot of noise created by the crowd.

The first time they had been behind at a World Cup, they were silenced just five minutes into the game.

The fans continued to sing "Dima Maghreb" as they had throughout the tournament, but the final blow came from Kolo Muani.

The former England defender said he loved it. One of my favorites is this game.

The crowd is fantastic and the atmosphere has been great.

Shearer said: "Morocco can be very, very proud of what they've achieved and the effort that they've put in, not just today but in the whole tournament."

The fans have had a great time. The lack of quality in the final third was the reason why their team came short.

'We realise we made a great achievement'

The World Cup third-fourth place play-off is a match that many people don't want to be involved in.

Tell that to Algeria.

They have beaten European powerhouses such as Belgium, Spain and Portugal and will finish third if they beat Croatia at the stadium on Saturday.

The two players prayed on the pitch before the game but there was no divine intervention.

The passion of their fans has won hearts around the world.

They can kiss their mothers in the stands or dance with them on the pitch after a match.

Kylian Mbappe swapped shirts and shared a hug with his Paris St-Germain teammate.

Romain Saiss returned to the pitch one last time while carrying his son to ponder what could have been.

Injury issues have proven costly for Morocco, as they lost a player before the start of the game, as well as a player at the half-time break.

The players bowed their heads for sujood in front of their faithful, and then applauded them as they left the stage.

Mohammed said that Saturday is a loser's game. It would mean the world to us if we finished third.

There are no tears today because we are so proud of what these players have accomplished.

"Maybe it was one step too far, physically we came up short and had too many players at 60 or 70% fitness and have been for a few games now," he said.

We are very proud of our achievement." Everyone was proud of us when we saw the pictures in the media. We were hoping to keep the dream alive.

We thought we could have gone even further, but these small details made the difference.

Our country and African football have a good reputation. Our continent was represented by us. People always respected us.

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