Graeme Souness was full of praise for Morocco following their 1-0 victory over Portugal in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, just days after dumping Spain out of the World Cup.

Morocco became the first African side to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup following the victory over Portugal on Saturday.

“It is part of history,” Souness said.

“I have to be honest, I thought Portugal will have looked at what happened to Spain and said ‘this won’t be us. We are going to get on the front foot, we have got better strikers, we will score goals against them and it could be an easy night’.

“But they didn’t do that. When you are a player on the pitch, when the ball goes out of play, you drift and start to think, ‘oh no, this is happening’.

“When the goalkeeper comes and you find yourself 1-0 down, the alarm bells are ringing in your head. At no time was it last ditch for Morocco. By and large, Morocco handled it very well.”

Morocco’s run to the semi-final has not been an easy one after they finished top of a group containing Croatia and Belgium, before seeing off Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages.

Morocco have conceded just one goal in the World Cup and will face defending champions France in the semi-finals.