AL KHOR, Qatar—Just about every French touch, and every one of their surprisingly infrequent forays into the opposition half, was greeted with the shrill whistle of thousands.
The clamor took Wednesday’s semifinal—a game that already came with stratospheric stakes—and injected it the sort of fervor and partisan tension that’s often missing at a World Cup. Tens of thousands of Morocco supporters, in unison, were piercing the Qatari night even in the most innocuous moments. They whistled France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. They whistled throw-ins. Robust, baritone chants were frequent, completely overwhelming the small section of Les Bleus fans camped behind Al Bayt Stadium’s north goal.
This competition's home team, Qatar, had come and gone silently, leaving no impression. The hosts lost all three of their group stage games and scored just one goal. And so Morocco became the de facto rooting interest for this country, this region of the world and for every neutral yearning to see soccer’s established order overturned.
