This article was first published yesterday in our bespoke Sports newsletter The Fixture yesterday. You can sign up in seconds to receive it straight to your inbox every weekday here.

There's an old Moroccan proverb that goes something along the lines of "drop by drop, the river rises". Simply put, it means Rome wasn't built in a day.

It is a maxim that could easily apply to the nation's football players who have spent the last 36 years attempting to return to the knockout stage of the World Cup ever since first achieving the feat at Mexico 86.

The Fixture spent part of this week speculating on two themes: the first was the possibility of an outsider winning the World Cup and the latter was the 50-year project Japan has undertaken in an attempt to make that long-shot a reality.

Who was to know the odds would shorten quite so significantly? Taking their lead from the kind of blue-sky thinking employed by Japan, Morocco have blindsided not just this newsletter but the rest of world football – bookmakers had them priced at 7/1 to beat Spain – by reaching the quarter-finals.

There should not be a great deal of surprise, however. The Atlas Lions have appeared at five previous World Cups prior to this one and have been quite at home on the global stage: in 1998 they became the first African team to break into the top 10 of the FIFA rankings; that same year they were dreadfully unlucky not to qualify for the last 16 at the World Cup in France when, having thumped Scotland in their group, they were undone by Norway's shock 2-1 win over Brazil.

At those aforementioned finals in 1986, Morocco topped a group containing England, Poland and Portugal, beating the latter 3-1 before losing narrowly to eventual finalists West Germany in the last 16.

That pedigree aside, Moroccan players have made telling and considerable contributions to top European sides over the past three decades. 

The Herald:

At present, Achraf Hakimi is the best right-back in the world, Noussair Mazraoui plays the same position for Bayern Munich but plays left-back for Morocco, Hakim Ziyech has been chronically wasted at Chelsea but is an attacking midfielder of star quality, Fiorentina's defensive midfielder Sofiyan Amrabat has quietly emerged as one of the success stories of the tournament, Sevilla's Yassine Bounou is one of the top goalkeepers in La Liga while his languid clubmate, the striker Youssef En-Nesyri, scores at roughly a rate of one goal every three games in Spain's top flight. 

That six are among a number of Moroccan success stories – past and present – in European football, a diaspora that includes those such as Romain Saiss and Younes Belhanda, who represent the Atlas Lions, and others like Nacer Chadli, Khalid Boulahrouz, Ibrahim Affelay, Adil Rami who were born elsewhere.

One of the first to make a real impression was Noureddine Naybet, who was a mainstay of the Deportivo La Coruna team that won La Liga at the start of the century. Prior to that, in the late 90s, Gordon Strachan signed a trio of Moroccans – Youssef Chippo, Youssef Safri and Mustapha Hadji – for Coventry City, the first of whom would later have an unsuccessful trial at Hibernian. 

If Chippo's Scottish adventure didn't quite work out it was a different story for Hicham Zerouali, who enjoyed an albeit brief love affair with Aberdeen fans. When Zerouali arrived at Aberdeen in November 1999, he did so with the Dons in the doldrums and in relegation trouble – but his impact was instant.

Zerouali set up two goals on his debut in a 3-1 win against Hearts, having been sprung from the bench with the scores level. He would go on to score a number of wonderful goals, not least one that made it into the club's history books, a sublime free-kick against St Mirren that was recorded as Aberdeen's 700th in the Scottish Cup. A trademark somersault would accompany each strike and Aberdeen fans were soon sporting fezzes around Pittodrie as 'Zero' – the first and last player in Scotland to wear the No.0 shirt due to special dispensation from the SFA – won their hearts. But, a broken ankle, sustained in a challenge by Motherwell's Ged Brennan forced him to miss the 2000 Olympic Games and it was said he was rarely the same again for Aberdeen. There was an outpouring of emotion at Pittodrie when he died in 2004, aged just 27, following a road accident in his home town of Rabat. 

For all Zerouali's off-the-cuff swagger, this Morocco team is more of a hybrid, combining natural flair with a more European style.

“We had to change our mindset,” said Walid Regragui, their head coach after their group victory over Canada. “We had to do what European and South American teams do. They come with a plan. We need to duplicate the rigorous European style with our own identity. If we do this we will win.”

Asked if his side was capable of winning the World Cup, Regragui added: “Why not aim for the sky? Why not dream of winning that trophy?”

Win or lose in tomorrow's quarter-final against Portugal, one senses that the river will continue to rise.

READ MORE: