It was in mid-air on the final leg to Doha that Hassan realised exactly what lay in store. He was travelling from Paris, via Istanbul, with his friends Manal and Zouhair after hours of searching for a ticket to Morocco against Spain finally paid off. “I didn’t understand what I was seeing and hearing,” he says. “There were Egyptians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Yemenis – all of them had left their families and their jobs, just to come and support Morocco.”
Hassan pulls up a video on his phone: almost every passenger is on their feet, chanting his homeland’s name. It was Monday night and, within 24 hours, they would witness history. Morocco had never reached the last eight of a World Cup before; if they defeat Portugal on Saturday they will do what nobody from their continent has ever managed, breaking Africa’s semi-final duck at last.
