{"id":3965,"date":"2022-12-22T20:26:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T20:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/morocco-end-2022-as-africas-top-nation\/"},"modified":"2022-12-22T20:26:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T20:26:42","slug":"morocco-end-2022-as-africas-top-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/morocco-end-2022-as-africas-top-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco end 2022 as Africa&#8217;s top nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1\">\n<figure class=\"gs-u-mt0 gs-u-mb-alt+ story-body__media story-body__media--figure qa-story-body-media story-body__media--lead\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$image-0\"><span class=\"gs-u-display-block story-body__media\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0\"><span class=\"gs-u-display-block gs-o-responsive-image\" style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$image-0.0.0\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"gel-brevier gs-u-ph+ gs-u-pv-alt story-body__media__caption story-body__media__caption--image\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$image-0.1\">Star players Achraf Hakimi and Hakim Ziyech were integral to Morocco&#8217;s run to a maiden World Cup semi-final in Qatar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p role=\"introduction\" class=\"qa-introduction gel-pica-bold\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-1.0\">Morocco&#8217;s historic run to the semi-finals of the World Cup means they will end the year as the highest-ranked footballing nation in Africa, according to world governing body Fifa.<\/span><\/p>\n<div data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2\">\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-2.0.0\">The Atlas Lions&#8217; run has earned them a spectacular jump as the year&#8217;s highest climbers on the global rankings, moving up 11 places to 11th.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.0\">The North Africans topped their group in Qatar, beating Belgium and Canada in the process, before dispatching Spain and Portugal in the knockout phase to become the first African country to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/63957512\" class=\"story-body__internal-link\" title=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.$link-2\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.$link-2.0\">reach the last four of a World Cup<\/span><\/a><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-3.3\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-4.0\">Morocco&#8217;s highest ever ranking was 10th in 1998 while they fell as low as 92nd in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.0\">They replace continental champions Senegal as Africa&#8217;s top dogs after the Teranga Lions&#8217; were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/63771033\" class=\"story-body__internal-link\" title=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.$link-2\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.$link-2.0\">eliminated by England<\/span><\/a><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-5.3\"> in the second round in Qatar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-6.0\">Three other African countries have also risen by more than ten places in the official Fifa Men&#8217;s Rankings since December 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-7.0\">Gambia have jumped 24 places to 126th, Cameroon, who beat Brazil at the World Cup, have climbed 17 places to 33rd and Equatorial Guinea 16 steps to 198th.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$paragraph-8.0\">Africa&#8217;s Top 10 on December&#8217;s Fifa Men&#8217;s Rankings (global position in brackets):<\/span><\/p>\n<ol data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9\">\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-0\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-0.0\">Morocco (11)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-1\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-1.0\">Senegal (19)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-2\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-2.0\">Tunisia (30)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-3\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-3.0\">Cameroon (33)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-4\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-4.0\">Nigeria (35)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-5\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-5.0\">Egypt (39)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-6\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-6.0\">Algeria (40)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-7\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-7.0\">Mali (45)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-8\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-8.0\">Ivory Coast (47)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-9\"><span data-reactid=\".255niki271e.0.0.0.1.$list-9.$list-item-9.0\">Burkina Faso (50)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/africa\/64059031?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=KARANGA\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Star players Achraf Hakimi and Hakim Ziyech were integral to Morocco&#8217;s run to a maiden World Cup semi-final in Qatar Morocco&#8217;s historic run to the semi-finals of the World Cup means they will end the year as the highest-ranked footballing nation in Africa, according to world governing body Fifa. The Atlas Lions&#8217; run has earned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3967,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions\/3967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}