Morocco continued its surprising World Cup run in Qatar by beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, No. 9 in FIFA’s world rankings, 1-0 in a quarterfinal match Saturday.
Morocco, No. 22 in the FIFA World rankings, will play two-time champion France in a semifinal on Wednesday on FOX.
The Atlas Lions, with four wins and a draw in Qatar, are the first African team to reach the World Cup semifinals. Morocco is in the semis for the first time in its sixth trip to the World Cup.
Besides the players, coaches, fans, and, well, the entire country of Morocco celebrating the achievement, bettors who backed the team are also celebrating. Let’s take a look at Saturday’s upset from a sports betting perspective.
Morocco celebrates after defeating Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Morocco is the first African nation to advance to the World Cup semifinals.
RELATED: Morocco stuns Portugal
Coming into the match, Morocco was +425 (bet $10 to win $52.50 total) at FOX Bet in the three-way betting market to beat Portugal.
While that is a huge upset, the even bigger story sports betting-wise is Morocco was +25000 (bet $10 to win $2,510 total) to win the World Cup at FOX Bet entering the tournament. Those are the longest odds for a team to make the semifinals over the past 40 years, per Sports Odds History.
Those bettors who were on Morocco before the tournament started are two wins away from a very nice Christmas bonus.
CURRENT ODDS AT FOX BET
Morocco to win 2022 World Cup (+850 at FOX Bet, bet $10 to win $95 total)
And it’s not too late to cash in on Morocco, which is now +850 at FOX Bet (bet $10 to win $95 total) to hoist the World Cup trophy.
“They only conceded one goal so far in the tournament that was an own goal, so aside from themselves, no rival team has scored any goals against the fighting Moroccans,” FOX Bet sports trader Henrique Tartaro said. “Incredible story, and you can’t help but cheer for them.
“Their odds to win it all so far are as high as +900, still the underdogs, but that definitely won’t stop them.”
Morocco coach Walid Regragui said his squad has more to accomplish in Qatar.
“Why shouldn’t we dream of winning the World Cup?” Regragui said. “If you don’t dream, you don’t get anywhere. It doesn’t cost you to dream.”
Portugal was playing in its sixth consecutive World Cup. The best showing for Seleção das Quinas (“The Selection of the Shields”) was when Portugal finished fourth in 2006.
The team seemed to be in a state of shock after the loss.
“It seemed that something was very weird,” Portugal defender and captain Pepe said. “We couldn’t play (in) the second half because the referee kept stopping the game.”
“This is a World Cup. It’s not easy to be here and then someone like this referee comes here and doesn’t allow us to play.”
“But what can we do now? We’re very, very sad. I think we had the team that could win it all, but unfortunately, we were unable to do so. I’m very angry, I’m very angry because they didn’t let us play, the referee didn’t let us play.”
Morocco vs. Portugal Highlights
Portugal was able to get a few shots on net including one in extra time by Cristiano Ronaldo but nothing went through.
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