Just as their counterparts in the men’s team suffered last year at the Qatar World Cup, Morocco’s women’s team must now suffer too, again knocked out of the tournament by a confident French side in the Women’s World Cup of 2023.
While the Atlas Lionesses smartly moved from the group stages to the last 16, a real push for a quarter-final place against Australia proved just a little too much for the young side. France were 3-0 up within the first 24 minutes in Adelaide, with a fourth coming on 70 minutes.
Devastating? Yes. Crushing? Yes. But there are so many reasons for Reynald Pedros’ side to be proud of their achievements in Australia and New Zealand. Here are three…
The first North African or Arab team to play at the Women’s World Cup
Despite a women’s national team only being established in Morocco in 1998, Reynald Pedros’ young squad stormed through to World Cup qualification, becoming the first ever female Arab team to do so.
Nouhaila Benzina, the first footballer to wear the hijab at the World Cup
It feels like quite a staggering statement when you see it on paper, but when the 25-year-old defender came on in Morocco’s Group H opener against Germany, she had written her name into footballing history.
The first North African or Arab team to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Women’s World Cup
While not too much expectation was placed on the shoulders of the Atlas Lionesses, they were quietly confident of what they could achieve. That wasn’t really helped when two-time world champions Germany thrashed them 6-0 in the opening game. However, the side rallied, picking up two 1-0 wins (against South Korea and Colombia) and forced their way into the round of 16.