Morocco approaches the elite of world football
Morocco achieved the great milestone of qualifying for the final of the Under-20 World Cup in Chile after beating France 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time.
This is a sporting milestone for football in the North African country, following the successes of the senior national team, which reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup in Qatar and has completed an excellent qualifying campaign for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Moroccan Under-20 team has thus reached the final of a World Cup in this category for the first time, something that few countries have achieved and which continues to bring great prestige to football in the North African country.
صور فوز منتخبنا الوطني على فرنسا 🇫🇷
— Équipe du Maroc (@EnMaroc) October 16, 2025
Unforgettable victory moments 📸 on our way to the 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟! 🌟#DimaMaghrib 🇲🇦 pic.twitter.com/TtL17BiPm1
Morocco is thus consolidating its position as a world football powerhouse in the run-up to the World Cup that the Moroccan kingdom will host together with Spain and Portugal in 2030, where the Moroccan senior team has set its sights on big goals after reaching the semi-finals at the last World Cup in Qatar.
The unexpected hero of the semi-final against France, played at the Elías Figueroa Brander Stadium in Valparaíso, was the team's third goalkeeper, Abdelhakim El Mesbahi, who came on in the last minute of extra time for the team's second goalkeeper, who had also come on for the starting goalkeeper during the match.
The match went into extra time after an intense 90 minutes in which Morocco played at a high tempo. The North African side took the lead in the 31st minute after a penalty for a foul that required video referee review. This action was marked by the intervention of Football Video Support (FVS), an experimental tool implemented in this tournament that gives coaches the option to request a review of plays. In the 30th minute of the first half, Uruguayan referee Tejeda awarded a penalty to the North African team after a review requested by coach Mohamed Ouahbi, due to a foul by Le Borgne on Baouf. Yassir Zabiri took the penalty with a tight shot that hit the post and, after rebounding off goalkeeper Olmeta, made it 1-0 to Morocco.
The Atlas Lions were superior to France in the first half, although France reacted and managed to equalise through Lucas Michal, thanks to a solo effort by Dabo, a dangerous winger who came on after the break to revolutionise the French attack.
France showed their potential until the end of the match and Morocco struggled, although the Moroccan players held on to reach extra time.
The score remained unchanged in extra time, with one setback for France being the sending off of Nzingoula with 15 minutes to go, a serious problem considering that extra time brings with it a lot of fatigue after all the minutes played in the match and in the tournament.
Morocco, which had already replaced its starting goalkeeper, Benchaouch, due to injury, bringing on the second goalkeeper, Gomis, made another substitution for the penalty shootout. El Mesbahi, a penalty specialist, came on in the last minute of extra time, just in time to face the French players' shots from the penalty spot. The Moroccan coach's gamble paid off for the Atlas Lions, as El Mesbahi became the hero from the penalty spot in sudden death, saving N'Guessan's decisive penalty to send Morocco through to their first ever U-20 World Cup final.
Coach Mohammed Ouahbi's decision was risky, but it proved decisive, as he put Albdelhakim El Mesbahi in goal, considered a true specialist at stopping penalties.
Morocco reaches the final after beating Spain and Brazil and losing to Mexico in the group stage of the World Cup, and after beating South Korea in the round of 16, the United States in the quarter-finals and France in the semi-finals.
Now, Argentina awaits Morocco in the final, which will be played on Sunday 19 October at the Julio Martínez Prádanos National Stadium in Santiago, Chile, at 8 p.m.
For its part, Argentina defeated Cuba, Australia and Italy in the group stage, Nigeria in the round of 16, Mexico in the quarter-finals and Colombia in the semi-finals by 1-0.
Morocco is thus moving even closer to the top of the football world with this U-20 World Cup final, which could become a major success if they win the final against Argentina.
The South American team is looking to regain a title it has not won since 2007, with the generation of Agüero and Di María, while Morocco wants to become the second African team to win the Under-20 World Cup after Ghana's victory in 2009.
