Tiktekno: clip summarizing today's events in sport, 30.1/Sport1
Morocco's loss yesterday (Tuesday) to South Africa in the last match of the round of 16 of the 2023 African Championship, determined that none of the Arab teams qualified for the quarterfinals - something that happened only twice before: in 2013 and in 1992.
Morocco came with huge expectations for a second win overall and first since 1976 after a little over a year ago they were amazed by qualifying to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
She did the job in the group stage with 7 points out of 9 possible, but yesterday she surrendered to South Africa 2:0 and ended her journey.
Egypt holds the record for wins with 7 qualifiers and has reached at least the semi-finals 16 times - more than any other team (Nigeria will be able to match this record in the coming days).
Tunisia and Algeria reached the last four 7 times and Morocco did it 5 times.
Even Libya finished as African runner-up in 1982.
The African Championship is now taking place for the 34th time and it is only the third time in which there is no team from an Arab country in the last 8 (in the first championships only 8 teams participated, but there was always at least one representative from the Arab countries).
A huge disappointment.
Hakimi and the Moroccan national team/Reuters
Morocco's performance was still relatively good compared to the other Arab teams.
Tunisia and Algeria, with big stars from the top European leagues, were already eliminated in the group stage.
Both finished the tournament undefeated, with two points and in last place at home.
Mohamed Salah's Egypt, a team that always sees itself as a favorite to win and always gets deeply depressed when it doesn't happen, has not won a single game.
The pharaohs advanced to the round of 16 with three draws and there in the knock out stage they failed to decide.
The match against the Democratic Republic of Congo ended 1:1 after 120 minutes and Egypt lost on penalties.
The most successful Arab team is Mauritania.
For years it was considered one of the weakest teams in Africa, but this time it managed to advance to the tournament for the third time in a row, achieve its first ever victory and reach the round of 16 - a record achievement.
More in Walla!
The quarter-final picture is complete: Morocco eliminated by South Africa
To the full article
In Saudi Arabia they did not expect to be eliminated already in the round of 16/Reuters
The failures of the Arab national teams in the African Championship add to the difficult winter that is also going through some of the Arab national teams in the Asian Championship which is held at the same time.
And you have to remember: in the Asian Championship, 10 of the 24 participating teams are from Arab countries.
Yesterday Saudi Arabia was eliminated in the round of 16 after losing to South Korea and before that Tajikistan beat the United Arab Emirates at that stage.
In addition, Palestine, Oman, Iraq, and Lebanon have already been rejected.
Jordan and Qatar are the Arab teams that have advanced so far and tomorrow Bahrain and Syria will try to surprise Japan and Iran respectively.
More on the same topic:
Morocco national team
The Egyptian national team
The Saudi Arabian national team