Walid Regragui stepped out on to the playing surface and looked to be deciding which of his fallen Atlas Lions to move towards first. Their ruby-red bodies littered the floor of this Bedouin desert tent, the stadium’s sides billowing in and out as Moroccan voices roared and rolled down from upon high.
It was all over and this, sadly, is how dreams can end. Suddenly and without ceremony. Regragui, the remarkable coach who has led Morocco on their miraculous journey here, was being serenaded by his people. He turned and found more comfort. Not his opposite number but a more familiar face.
Olivier Giroud had been removed 65 minutes into a remarkably gripping second semi-final of Qatar’s World Cup. The champions were ahead on the scoreboard but behind almost everywhere else. The first African side to make it to the last four of this tournament weren’t going gently, weren’t going anywhere in fact. They took the blows and rose again, rampaged again and raged until the dying of the dream.
