Atlas Lionesses secure their legacy in Moroccan football’s golden era

They all went in different directions. Some hugged those nearest, some fell to their knees in prayer and disbelief, and some just ran around not knowing what to do with themselves. The reaction of the Moroccan players as it all ended was surely matched by fans back home after the stunning 1-0 win over Colombia in Perth, Australia, on Thursday.

Less than eight months after the men reached the semifinals of Qatar 2022, the women’s team, unbelievably, reached the knockout stages of their first ever Women’s World Cup. This is truly a golden era for Moroccan football. It could be argued that this latest achievement matches the first, but either way, this is simply stunning.

When the Atlas Lionesses lost their first ever World Cup game 6-0 to Germany on July 24 in Melbourne, the reaction was that the team needed time and experience to compete at this level. After all, this was a game between the two-time world champions, a team ranked second in the world, and a North African debutant, a full 70 places lower. As the full-time whistle sounded in that game, nobody would have imagined that just a few days later Morocco would be going through to the last 16 and that the mighty Germans would be going home.

Nobody could have conceived that, on Thursday, it would be the Europeans wandering around tearful and shell-shocked in Brisbane at the end of their 1-1 draw with South Korea while the Moroccans would be running around the Perth pitch, thousands of kilometers to the west, celebrating after beating the Group H leaders to take second place and become not just the first Arab team to appear at the competition, but also to progress past the group stage. Here is what happened in between. After the first game thrashing, Morocco bounced