Joe Biden watches Morocco vs. France game with Moroccan PM & other African leaders, praises keep pouring in for the Atlas Lions

US President Joe Biden, along several African leaders attending the US-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington, have joined the head of the Moroccan government to watch the semifinal of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, opposing Morocco to France.

The world leaders had taken some time off their deliberations for the US-Africa leaders’ summit to watch the world cup.

A photo shared by US president Joe Biden showed him in the company of president George Weah (Liberia) and Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria) watching the game.

Different angles of the photo from other sources on Social media showed Moroccan and Ethiopian Prime Ministers Abiy Ahmed and Aziz Akhannouch also watching the game along with the US President.

In a social media post, President Biden commended the Moroccan team saying he was proud of their performance despite their 2-0 defeat.
“It was a great honor to watch today’s World Cup match alongside Prime Minister Akhannouch of Morocco. No matter who you’re rooting for, it was remarkable to watch how much this team has been able to achieve,” President Biden tweeted.

Lots of praises keep pouring in for the Atlas Lions.

Morocco has broken a glass ceiling by becoming the only African or Arab country to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.

At the end of the match, President Emmanuel Macron who was present at the Al Bayt stadium in Al-Khor (Qatar) took to tweeter to congratulate Morocco for the mesmerizing achievement.

“To our Moroccan friends: congratulations for this beautiful journey. You are making football history,” he tweeted.

The very serious daily L’Economiste agrees: “The arrival of the Atlas Lions in the last four of a World Cup, a first for an African team, is experienced as a starting point and not as an achievement.

The course of Achraf Hakimi and his teammates throughout the competition in Qatar earned them an entry “in the pantheon of soccer,” the French newspaper said.

In the first World Cup held in an Arab country, Morocco won supporters far afield as the first Arab team to reach the quarter-finals and the first African team to reach the semis.

Despite the disappointment after the team’s semi-final defeat, Moroccan as well as African and Arab fans rose to applaud Morocco for the mesmerizing achievement of Yassine Bounou’s team.

A rare occurrence, world news agencies mobilized their correspondents across Africa and the Arab world to follow the response of fans to the performance of the beautiful Moroccan. Meanwhile, social networks resounded with unanimous praise for Morocco.

“The sadness of losing should not make us forget the happiness we have experienced,” said one fan on his facebook page.

Another wrote: “Thank you for the desire, the sacrifices and the will to fight for the jersey. Thank you for the thrills, the shouts of joy and the scenes of jubilation. And thank you for giving back faith and smile to a people who desperately needed it”.

“This is the semi-final. It is already an honor and we are proud to see people from different countries root for the Moroccan team,” Taoufiq Ouchikh told Reuters.

“We thank the national team for this achievement. We are proud of this team. We lost to a world Cup champion and we dominated,” said Abdelilah Sair, another fan.

Beyond that, “for the millions who watched the semi-final (…), it felt like the ultimate showdown, yet the players on both teams fought valiantly, comforted each other and supported each other morally, giving hope for a sea change in international relations between the former colonies and their European nemesis,” the American cultural publication The Markaz Review said.

The Moroccan odyssey in the first World Cup held in an Arab country, is not quite over. The Atlas Lions, the first Arab team to reach the quarter-finals and the first African team to reach the semifinals, will play on Saturday the “small final” against Croatia to reach the podium.