MAR Vs POR: Morocco Saturday became the first ever African team to reach the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup as they defeated Portugal 1-0. The Atlas Lions created history for African football. In the nine decades of the showpiece tournament, three African teams have played quarterfinals before Morocco but none qualified for the semifinals. Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana are the three African sides who reached the quarterfinals in 1990, 2002 and 2010, respectively.
The moment of history had many taking to social media to shower praise on Morocco for the feat. Among them was Colombian singer and songwriter Shakira. "This time for Africa," she wrote on Twitter, posting a line from the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem she had sung when the edition was hosted by South Africa.
The song, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", or "Waka Waka (Esto es África)" in Spanish, featured the South African band Freshlyground. The song that draws inspiration from the original Cameroon song "Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)", was released on May 7, 2010, by Epic Records as the official 2010 FIFA World Cup song. This has been one of the catchiest World Cup anthems till date.
Shakira was not the only celebrity who took to social media to congratulate Morocco, which made World Cup history earlier also as the first African team to earn a point in 1970, and the first African team to reach the knockouts in 1986.
Billionnaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were among the others who posted their reactions on Twitter.