Morocco’s 2022 World Cup run was supposed to be the impossible one.

First African nation into a semifinal. First Arab nation into a semifinal. Spain beaten. Portugal beaten. France pushed hard. It was historic, emotional, and very easy to label as one of those once-in-a-generation World Cup stories.

Except now Morocco are doing it again.

By beating Canada in the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup, the Atlas Lions became the first African nation ever to reach consecutive World Cup quarterfinals. That is the part that matters here. Not just one deep run. Two.

Cameroon got to the quarterfinals in 1990. Senegal did it in 2002. Ghana did it in 2010, and came within one penalty kick of going even further. Morocco went one better than all of them in 2022, reaching the semifinals.

But none of those teams came back four years later and reached the last eight again.

Has any African nation ever reached consecutive World Cup semifinals?

That is the next bit of history Morocco are chasing.

If they beat France, they will become the first African nation ever to reach back-to-back World Cup semifinals too. That is a much smaller club globally.

How many countries have reached consecutive World Cup semifinals?

Since the World Cup introduced a proper semifinal stage, only seven countries have reached consecutive semifinals: Italy, Brazil, Germany/West Germany, Argentina, France, the Netherlands and Croatia.

So Morocco are already out on their own in African terms. Whatever happens against France, 2026 has proved Qatar was not just a beautiful one-off.

It’s worth remembering that nearly 50 years ago, the legend that was Pelé boldly predicted that an African nation would win the World Cup before the turn of the century. He was decades too early.

But with Morocco continuing to rewrite history, his belief that Africa would eventually become a genuine World Cup force suddenly feels less like a questionable prophecy and more like an inevitability. Or at least that’s what they hope.

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