Morocco rock Spain to seal quarter-final SPOT

MOROCCO boss Walid Regragui said his side's World Cup upset victory over Spain proved that players born outside the country can lift them to the next level after they reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

MOROCCO 1

SPAIN 1

Morocco win 3-0 on penalties  

Spain-born Achraf Hakimi one of 14 foreign-born players in Morocco's 26-man squad - dispatched the country of his birth with the winning penalty in a 3-0 shootout victory following a goalless 120 minutes.

There followed wild celebrations and Regragui shrugged off being dropped while being thrown in the air by his players.

Regragui, himself born in France, claimed vindication after fighting for foreign-born players to gain greater acceptance within the national team.

"For this I have fought," he said.

"Before this World Cup we had a lot of problems about the guys born in Europe and guys born in not Morocco and a lot of journalists said, 'Why don't we play with guys born in Morocco?? "Today we have shown that every Moroccan is Moroccan.