Africa can look back on World Cup with satisfaction despite no top-four finish

ATLANTA, July 10 : African interest at the World Cup ended with Morocco on Thursday, but the continent will be pleased with its results at the 2026 finals, even if it will have no teams in the final four.

The continent had nine of its 10 sides get past the group stage, revelled with the rest of the world in the fairytale exploits of tiny Cape Verde and came close to staging stunning upsets, letting slip precious leads with only minutes to play.

In Qatar four years ago, Morocco became the first African side to reach the semi-finals, but in the expanded 48-team format in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., they were eliminated in the quarter-finals - on both occasions by France.

The North Africans were always expected to be a potential contender, especially after giving Brazil a scare in their opening group fixture and eliminating the Netherlands in the last 32.

Egypt were the next best African achievers, winning a World Cup match for the first time and advancing to the last 16, where they led Argentina 2-0 with 11 minutes to play but lost 3-2 amid VAR controversy.

Letting vital leads slip also cost the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, and Senegal, who were 2-0 up with five minutes to go against Belgium but lost in extra time.

Senegal had been expected to lead Africa's charge, with an impressively strong squad, but made horror errors in losing their opening two games to France and Norway and never recovered from having their confidence dented.

"Elimination was a failure. We had the quality to go further. We didn't," said goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

"A competition of this level demands deep introspection. Not just a superficial review, but honest, rigorous scrutiny of everything that was done... uncomfortable truths are often the