The Moroccan national team continued their impressive run in the Kings League World Cup by reaching the semi-finals, after securing a victory over the United States on Wednesday night in a penalty shootout, following a 7-7 draw at the end of regulation time. The match took place in Milan, Italy, in front of a large Moroccan audience who supported Issam El Raqui’s teammates throughout this competition. The Moroccan players opened the scoring thanks to a superb goal from Nader El-Lawah in the first minute. However, the American team managed to score three goals in just eight minutes before Morocco closed the gap with an own goal from the opposing team. The United States continued to dominate and scored two more goals before the end of the first half, which ended with a score of 5-2 in their favor. In the second half, Fouad El Amrani scored Morocco’s third goal in the 22nd minute, then Achraf Saoud added the fourth in the 26th. El Amrani then scored another goal, while the American team added two more goals. El-Lawah scored two more goals to put Morocco level 7-7 at the end of regulation time, and the match was then decided on penalties in favor of Morocco. Morocco will face Colombia in the semi-final after the Colombians beat Uzbekistan. The Moroccan team has fielded a composition including emblematic former players, including Mbark Boussoufa, Zakaria Hadraf, Issam Er Raqui, Achraf Saoud, Saïd El Aouni, Mehdi Amri, and other players who have worn the national colors in this competition. It should be noted that the Moroccan team lost to Colombia in the first round, but won against Ukraine in the second round, before beating Japan in the final round of qualifying. Kings League matches are played with 7 players per team: a goalkeeper and 6 outfield players. Each half lasts 20 minutes, with each team able to make an unlimited number of changes. The match begins with a 1-on-1 duel between a player from each team for one minute, then the other players gradually enter the field until both teams are complete.
