Doha, December 16 (QNA) – The semi-finals of the 11th edition of the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025 lived up to its promise of high-quality matches and enthusiastic crowds, resulting in the well-deserved qualification of the Jordanian and Moroccan national teams for the final, scheduled for Thursday at Lusail Stadium.

The Moroccan national team secured their place in the final after a convincing 3-0 victory over the UAE in the first semi-final, held Monday at Khalifa International Stadium. Jordan joined them after a hard-fought 1-0 win against Saudi Arabia in the second semi-final, played at Al Bayt Stadium on the same day.

While the two finalists will meet at Lusail Stadium on Thursday to compete for the title, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will face each other in the third-place match, also scheduled for Thursday at Khalifa International Stadium.

Despite Morocco's clear victory in the first semi-final, the win wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests. After a strong start, during which coach Tarik Sektioui's men displayed clear superiority and scored the opening goal after less than half an hour, the UAE team rallied in the second half, dominating much of the play in search of an equalizer, but to no avail.

As the match entered its final minutes, the UAE team had nothing left to lose and threw everything into attack, leaving gaps in their own half. This allowed Morocco to score two goals in the last seven minutes, securing the victory.

The second semi-final between Jordan and Saudi Arabia was full of competitiveness and excitement. The Saudi team clearly controlled the game, but they encountered a strong Jordanian defense that relied on packing their own half, while remaining dangerous on the counter-attack.

The Jordanian national team's solid defense effectively neutralized the Saudi Arabian attack, before the second half saw a noticeable surge in attack from the players of Moroccan coach Jamal Sellami. They managed to score the only goal of the match through counter-attacks, leaving the Saudi team with no chance of a comeback.

Statistical figures for both the Jordanian and Moroccan teams confirm their deserved qualification for the final. Jordan won all five of their previous matches in the tournament, making them the only team to achieve this feat.

Morocco won four matches and drew one. Jordan boasted the strongest attack, scoring ten goals and conceding only two, while Morocco had the strongest defense, conceding just one goal and scoring eight.

The tournament continued to break attendance records, with fans maintaining their momentum in the semi-finals, building on the momentum of the previous rounds. The total attendance reached 1,119,315 by the end of the semi-finals, highlighting the significant engagement the competition has garnered from fans both within Qatar and those who traveled to the country from across the Arab world.

The tournament surpassed the one million mark by the end of the quarter-finals, with a total attendance of 1,022,592 fans across all matches.

The two semi-final matches drew a combined 96,723 spectators, with 62,825 attending the Jordan-Saudi Arabia match and 33,898 the Morocco-UAE match.

The group stage had already set a record with 812,318 fans attending the 24 matches played, significantly exceeding the previous record of 571,605 set in the 2021 Doha edition.

This record was broken early, specifically after the 18th match of the current tournament, when the total attendance reached 598,290. These figures continued to climb, eventually surpassing the one million mark.

The quarter-finals saw an attendance of 210,274 fans, while the group stage drew 812,318, and the semi-finals attracted 96,723, bringing the total to 1,119,315. However, including the seven preliminary matches played before the official start of the finals, which drew 44,625 fans, the overall attendance reached 1,163,940.

As for the highest attendance for a single match, the Morocco-Saudi Arabia game in the final round of the group stage broke the record with 78,131 fans, surpassing the previous record set in the 2021 edition during the Qatar-UAE quarter-final match, which drew 63,439 fans.

In terms of overall tournament statistics from the start of the finals until the semi-finals, the teams played 30 matches, recording 22 wins and 8 draws (3 goalless and 5 with goals). A total of 72 goals were scored, averaging a healthy 2.4 goals per match. Twelve penalties were awarded, with nine converted and three missed. 77 yellow cards and 11 red cards were issued.

Jordan's Ali Alwan leads the top scorers list with four goals. He is followed by Karim El Berkaoui (Morocco), Mohamed Kanno (Saudi Arabia), and Adel Boulbinia (Algeria), each with three goals. Bruno Oliveira (UAE), Redouane Berkane (Algeria), Omar Khribin (Syria), Essam Al-Subhi (Oman), Fahad Al Hajeri (Kuwait), Yahya Al Ghasani (UAE), Mohanad Ali (Iraq), Mahdi Abdul Jabbar (Bahrain), and Firas Al Buraikan (Saudi Arabia) each scored two goals.

Meanwhile, the list of players with the most assists is topped by Saudi national team star Salem Al Dawsari, who provided 6 assists, followed by Algerian Redouane Berkane and Bahraini Ali Madan with 3 assists each. (QNA)