title: Isn't She Lovely

text: "Isn't She Lovely" is a song by Stevie Wonder from his 1976 album, "Songs in the Key of Life". The lyrics celebrate the birth of his daughter, Aisha Morris. Wonder collaborated on the song with Harlem songwriter and studio owner Burnetta "Bunny" Jones.


title: Isn't She Lovely

text: The song opens side 3 of "Songs in the Key of Life", and starts with a baby's first cry recorded during an actual childbirth. A recording of Wonder bathing Aisha as an older toddler is brought into the final section of the song, mixed with Wonder's extended chromatic harmonica solo. All of the instruments heard in the song are played by Wonder, except for some keyboard parts played by Greg Phillinganes. During the recording process, bassist Nathan Watts laid down a bass guitar line to serve as a guide track for Wonder, but Wonder eventually replaced this with his own keyboard bass performance.


title: Isn't She Lovely

text: The more-than-six-minute song was not released as a single, as Wonder was unwilling to shorten the song to fit the 7", 45 rpm format. Even without a single release, the song received so much airplay that it reached number 23 on the Adult Contemporary chart in January 1977. Since then, the song has become a jazz and pop standard, covered by many artists.


title: Isn't She Lovely

text: Wonder performed the song live for Queen Elizabeth II at her Diamond Jubilee Concert on June 4, 2012, with lyrics modified to refer to the Queen.


title: Isn't She Lovely

text: The song was not issued as a commercial single and therefore it did not appear on the major charts in the US and UK. However, due to radio airplay, it reached number 23 on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart on January 29, 1977.


title: Adam Lamberg

text: Adam Matthew Lamberg (born September 14, 1984) is an American former actor, best known for his portrayal of David "Gordo" Gordon in the Disney Channel series "Lizzie McGuire" from 2001 through 2004, and in "The Lizzie McGuire Movie".


title: Adam Lamberg

text: Adam Lamberg was born in New York City, New York, the son of Suzanne, a retired public high school dance teacher, and Marc Lamberg. His father is Jewish, whereas his mother is French-Canadian. Lamberg described himself as a "cultural Jew".


title: Adam Lamberg

text: In 2019, it was announced that he would reprise his role as David "Gordo" Gordon in a "Lizzie McGuire " revival for Disney+ but Disney later decided to not go forward with the revival.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Flight of the Intruder is a 1991 war film directed by John Milius, and starring Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Johnson. It is based on the novel of the same name by former Grumman A-6 Intruder pilot Stephen Coonts. The film received negative reviews upon release, and as of 2022 is Milius's final theatrical release as a director.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson) and his bombardier/navigator and best friend Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPherson (Christopher Rich) are flying a Grumman A-6 Intruder during the Vietnam War over the Gulf of Tonkin towards North Vietnam. They hit their target, a 'suspected truck park', which actually turns out to be trees. On the return to carrier, Morg is fatally shot in the neck by an armed Vietnamese peasant. Landing on the USS "Independence" with Morg dead, a disturbed Jake, covered in blood, walks into a debriefing with Commander Frank Camparelli (Danny Glover) and Executive Officer, Commander "Cowboy" Parker (J. Kenneth Campbell). Camparelli tells Jake to put Morgan's death behind him and to write a letter to Sharon, Morg's wife. New pilot Jack Barlow (Jared Chandler), nicknamed "Razor" because of his youthful appearance, is then introduced.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Lieutenant Commander Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe) arrives on board and reports to Camparelli, who later tells Jake's roommate Sammy Lundeen (Justin Williams) to take Jake, Bob "Boxman" Walkawitz (Tom Sizemore) and "Mad Jack" (Dann Florek) to fly into Subic Bay the next day and help Jake unwind. Jake goes to see Sharon, but she has already departed. He runs into a woman named Callie Troy (Rosanna Arquette), who is packing Sharon's things, and they have a small, tense encounter. After an altercation with civilian merchant sailors in the Tailhook Bar, Jake runs into Callie again. After they reconcile, dance and spend the night together, she reveals her husband was a Navy pilot himself and was killed on a solo mission over Vietnam.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Jake returns to the carrier, where Camparelli confronts him regarding the bar incident, and Cole reports in Jake's favor. Cole and Jake are paired on "Iron Hand" A-6Bs loaded with Standard and Shrike anti-radiation missiles for SAM suppression. During the mission, after a successful strike, they encounter and manage to evade a North Vietnamese MiG-17.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Jake suggests to Cole that they bomb Hanoi, which would be a violation of the restrictive rules of engagement (ROE) and could get them court-martialed. Cole initially rejects the idea. On the next raid, Boxman hits the suspected target, but is shot down by another SAM and killed. The North Vietnamese in Hanoi gloat on TV over the downing of U.S. aircraft. Cole then agrees with Jake's plan to attack Hanoi, deciding to hit "SAM City," a surface-to-air missile depot.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: To secure their mission, they coercively enlist the aid of the Squadron Intelligence Officer, who has been caught urinating in the commander's coffee decanter, being the Phantom Shitter who's secretly repeated this deed throughout the first half of the movie. He warns Jake and Cole that there's no chance of succeeding in their mission, but he is soundly ignored.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Sent to bomb a power plant in the vicinity of Hanoi, they drop two of their Mark 83 bombs, keeping eight for the missile depot and set a new course for Hanoi for their independent bombing mission. Arriving at SAM City, on their first pass, their armament computer malfunctions and they are forced to bomb 'by hand' (guesswork), and after barely surviving a barrage of enemy fire, their bombs fail to release. The two come back around, rerun the route, successfully drop their bombs and manage to obliterate the missile depot in a spectacular display of secondary explosions. Upon returning to the carrier, Camparelli angrily chastises the pair for their independent mission and informs them of their impending court martial at the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay. During the preliminary hearing, Cole and Grafton are criticized for their actions, and informed that their naval careers are essentially over.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The charges are dropped the next day when Operation Linebacker II is ordered by President Richard M. Nixon, and the unauthorized mission is covered up. The next day, Camparelli grounds Jake and Cole while the rest of the carrier's A-6 and A-7 crews conduct a daylight raid to destroy anti-aircraft emplacements: the tangible, lucrative targets they've longed to attack. Camparelli is hit by a ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" AA tank and crash lands, his bombardier dead. Sammy Lundeen is hit and has to head for the ocean. Razor is ordered by Camparelli to disengage and obeys. Jake and Cole, defying orders, man their Intruder, launch and fly one more time to assist Camparelli. They destroy the ZSU, but are forced to eject from their heavily damaged aircraft. After bailing out, Jake lands near Camparelli's crashed Intruder and runs to cover with Camparelli. Separated from Jake, Cole is mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat with an enemy soldier. On the radio, he lies to Jake, telling him he has already gotten away. Moments later, a pair of U.S. Air Force A-1 Skyraiders ("Sandy") appear and provide cover.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Cole instructs the lead Sandy to drop ordnance on the spot he has marked with smoke. He is killed along with a few dozen NVA soldiers. Cole's final voice transmission to Sandy is: "Alpha Mike Foxtrot"! (meaning "Adios, mother f___!") Jake and Camparelli retreat into the woods, pursued by a sniper. A "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter picks up the two men, and the Skyraiders make one final napalm run to finish the job.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Later, recovering from his injuries, Jake joins his crew and Camparelli, all in their Navy whites, on deck to prepare for entry at a port of call. Jake and Camparelli reconcile their differences, and the movie ends in rolling credits.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Politician and actor Fred Thompson has an uncredited role as a JAGC Captain during the court-martial sequence, reflecting his real-life profession as an attorney. David Schwimmer has a bit part as a Squadron Duty Officer. David Wilson, a military advisor to the production, appears as an officer in the flight briefing.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The US Naval Institute, which publishes "Proceedings", the professional journal of the US Navy, had a success publishing the first original novel in its 112-year history with "The Hunt for Red October". They were flooded with manuscripts and decided to publish as a follow up "Flight of the Intruder" by Stephen Coonts. Coonts was a Denver lawyer who had flown during the Vietnam War; he was discharged in 1977 after nine years of active duty, including two combat cruises aboard the "Enterprise", 1600 hours in Intruders and 305 carrier landings, 100 of them at night. He had sent the book to 36 publishers, 30 of whom refused to look at it, four who rejected it and two that he was waiting to hear back from. Coonts says he made up the central thrust of the film. "There was no secret bombing. It comes out of the character's deep-seated sense of frustration with the course of the war."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The book became a best seller, due in part to an endorsement from Tom Clancy and President Ronald Reagan (who had liked "Red October") and was a selection for the Book of the Month Club. Paperback rights were sold for $341,000. "I wasn't expecting anything like this," said Coonts,


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The book spent over six months on the best seller list and sold over 230,000 copies in hardback. Coonts signed a contract with Doubleday to write another novel about pilot Jake Grafton, "Final Flight". The Naval Institute Arm sent Coonts a letter asking for a licensing fee to use the character again.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Film rights were bought by producer Mace Neufeld, who had filmed "The Hunt for Red October". A script was written and John McTiernan was originally going to direct "Intruder" but dropped out and eventually served as an executive producer. The Russian sequences in the film of "October" had been rewritten at Sean Connery's request by John Milius, and Milius was signed to direct "Intruder".


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "It was such an internal examination of that life and what it takes to fly," said Milius of the novel. "There was such wonderful reality on life aboard a naval carrier and life in Vietnam. I loved the whole idea of what those guys do."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Milius rewrote the original script. According to Sam Sayers, who worked on the film as technical adviser, "I never saw the first script, but I understand there were scenes of pilots smoking pot and that kind of nonsense. It was unrealistic - "Top Gun" in Vietnam. Milius just went back to the book. It's the reason he wanted to make the film."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "Most books don't seem to survive, but this was an excellent transition," said Coonts. "It takes 12 hours to read the book on tape, and it's certainly abridged - 13 flights in the book are scrunched down to four, and the role of the girl (played by Rosanna Arquette) is smaller. But the themes of the film are the same as the book."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "I'm not interested in debating the Vietnam War," said Milius, adding he was interested in "what happens to people, in this case the professionals who fought it, and their reactions as human beings," and "the institutions that people belong to and give themselves to that are larger than themselves... It certainly is no more patriotic than "The Right Stuff", but it's in the same vein."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "One of the things I like about the military, and why I'd have loved to be an officer in the Navy, is that the (moral) code is very simple," added Milius. "I come from a business where there's a preponderance of literature on the lack of morality - and I don't find it terribly entertaining, that atmosphere, in fact I find it rather weak."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The lead roles of the pilots were given to Richard Gere and Brad Johnson; Johnson had just played a key role in Steven Spielberg's "Always" (1989). Milius talked to Richard Dreyfuss about playing the squadron commander. Rosanna Arquette had the female lead. Gere dropped out and was replaced by Willem Dafoe; Danny Glover played the squadron commander. The movie included an early role for Tom Sizemore.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Danny Glover spent five days aboard the aircraft carrier USS "Independence" for research, which he said made him appreciate the story more. "It's about the camaraderie and the bond of trust that exists between men under stress," said Glover. "The camaraderie and trust I've seen among the men here, many only 18 or 20 years old, in peacetime, has got to be that much stronger under conditions of conflict, especially if they don't feel they're supported from up above."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "Flight of the Intruder" was made with complete U.S. Navy cooperation, with eight Naval Air facilities at the disposal of the Paramount production team. The USS "Independence" (CV-62), provided for two weeks of filming in November 1989 and A-6E Intruders from VA-165 "Boomers" were used. Members of VA-165 spent two weeks on the "Independence". The film crew kept the ship's fire party busy with numerous small electrical fires started by their lighting equipment. The Navy had script approval and was reimbursed for costs associated with the film: an estimated $1.2 million. "It's very stirring to push off on an aircraft carrier," said Milius. "It's a chance to live out my fantasies."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The ship seen on guard station in the background as Grafton threw Morg's fuzzy dice overboard after his memorial service was the USS "William H. Standley" (CG-32). Naval Air Station Barbers Point Hawaii Hangar 111 (HSL-37 and VC-1 hangar) housed the A-6 Intruders during filming in Hawaii. The battleship USS "Missouri" can be seen behind Camparelli during the court martial sequence. Also two scenes were shot at Naval Station Long Beach, California.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Future U.S. Senator Fred Thompson had a major speaking part during the court-martial sequence, portraying a U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps captain. As a favor to his friend, John Milius, Ed O'Neill was originally cast in the movie in a small uncredited role, but when the film was screened for test audiences, his appearance led to laughter, as audience members associated him with his "Married... with Children" character, Al Bundy. The director recast his character and reshot those scenes.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: That was Paramount with the Paramount control, and they tried to control every aspect of it. I'd spent more money than I'd ever spent before, because they told me how much I was going to spend on it. They didn't let me control it. I would have made that movie for at least $5 million less.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "Flight of the Intruder" required early variants of the A-6 Intruder, the A-6A conventional bomber and A-6B equipped with specialized electronics and weapons for suppression of enemy air defenses missions. All operational A-6s at the time of filming, however, had been updated to the A-6E without the TRAM targeting equipment, or KA-6D standards. The A-6 featured in the crash scene was a detailed mock-up patterned from an actual aircraft but with a foreshortened rear fuselage. The large-scale (1/160) miniature of Hanoi and "Sam City" was recreated to serve as the backdrop for rear projection work.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Other aircraft included a Sikorsky SH-3 "Sea King" rescue helicopter in various action sequences, with brief appearances of U.S. Navy aircraft such as the North American RA-5C Vigilante, Vought A-7 Corsair II, Grumman C-2 Greyhound and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, as well as a MiG-17 in North Vietnamese markings. Two privately owned Douglas A-1 Skyraiders also flew in the rescue sequence.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: In the novel, the A-6 Intruder pilots operate from the fictional aircraft carrier USS "Shiloh". Grafton enlists his new bombardier Cole and Abe Steiger (the squadron intelligence officer) to attack the headquarters of the Communist Party in Hanoi; however, Steiger is unable to find any information on Communist Party Headquarters among the targeting materials available aboard the "Shiloh". They ultimately decide to attack the National Assembly building as requesting targeting information about Communist Party Headquarters would raise unwanted attention and suspicion. In the novel, Callie had not been previously wed (nor was she a mother). In another departure from the film, Grafton and Cole are shot down during a twilight SAM suppression raid. Major Frank Allen, an Air Force A-1 pilot and member of the rescue operation to recover Grafton and Cole, is shot down. Dying and unable to free himself from his aircraft, he calls in a strike on his location, not Cole. The novel ends with Cole and Grafton being rescued. Cole is eventually transferred to Naval Hospital Pensacola, Florida, for treatment of his wounds while Grafton reflects on his progress towards his naval service and gets lost in a state of limbo regarding his career.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The film was meant to be released on July 13, 1990, but it was delayed in order to shoot a new ending. Neufeld said the studio did not want the film to compete with two other military-aircraft themed films, "Memphis Belle" and "Air America". Also he wanted to film an additional scene aboard the "USS Ranger" in San Diego with Danny Glover and Brad Johnson. "We worked around the navy's schedule," said the producer. "After all, you just don't put in an order for one of these things to come into port." The film was eventually released in January 1991. It coincided with the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. "I have no idea how the box office will be affected," said Neufeld. "Hopefully the film will rise or fall on its own merits."


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The film earned $5,725,133 in its first weekend on 1,489 screens, making it the fourth most popular film in the US. Its final theater gross was $14,587,732, failing to recoup its $30 million budget.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "Flight of the Intruder" earned mostly negative reviews upon its release, with many reviewers noting inconsistencies in plot and continuity errors in the final edit, as well as the low-budget special effects. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 25% approval rating based on 12 reviews, with a rating average of 4.80/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: Roger Ebert called the film a "mess", noting that "Some scenes say one thing, some say another, while the movie develops an absurd and unbelievable ending and a final shot so cloying you want to shout rude suggestions at the screen." In a 2019 interview, Stephen Coonts, the author on the book on which the film was based gave two reasons for the poor quality of the film. Firstly, his book being poorly suited for adaption into a film, and secondly micromanagement from the US Navy, which was providing access to its ships and aircraft for the film.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: "Flight of the Intruder", a video game based on the original novel, was released for personal computers in 1990 and re-released for the Nintendo Entertainment System around the same time as the film. Developed by Rowan Software, Ltd. and published by Spectrum Holobyte, the game allowed players the choice of flying either the Grumman A-6 Intruder or the F-4 from aircraft carriers against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.


title: Flight of the Intruder

text: The theme music of "Flight of the Intruder" was later used as the opening theme of the Belgian TV humorous talk show/game show series "Schalkse Ruiters".


title: Heinz Linge

text: Heinz Linge (23 March 1913 – 9 March 1980) was a German SS officer who served as a valet for the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and became known for his close personal proximity to historical events. Linge was present in the "Führerbunker" on 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide. Linge's ten-year service to Hitler ended at that time. In the aftermath of the Second World War in Europe, Linge spent ten years in Soviet captivity.


title: Heinz Linge

text: According to his memoir, titled "With Hitler to the End" and published by Skyhorse in 2014, "Linge was responsible for all aspects of Hitler’s household". Despite the circumstances of the war, Linge's portrayal of the "Führer" has been described as "affectionate", although Hitler as a supervisor acted in a manner "unpredictable and demanding".


title: Heinz Linge

text: Linge was born in Bremen, Germany. He was employed as a bricklayer prior to joining the SS in 1933. He served in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), Hitler's bodyguard. In 1934, when he was part of No. 1 Guard to Hitler's residence on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, Linge was selected to serve at the Reich Chancellery. By the end of the war, he had obtained the rank of SS-"Obersturmbannführer" (lieutenant colonel).


title: Heinz Linge

text: On 24 January 1935, Linge was chosen to be a valet for Hitler. He was one of three valets at that time. In September 1939, Linge replaced Karl Wilhelm Krause as chief valet for Hitler. Linge worked as a valet in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, at Hitler's residence near Berchtesgaden, and at Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg. He stated that his daily routine was to wake Hitler each day at 11.00am and provide morning newspapers and messages. Linge would then keep him stocked with writing materials and spectacles for his morning reading session in bed. Hitler would then dress himself to a stopwatch with Linge acting as a "referee". He would take a light breakfast of tea, biscuits and an apple and a vegetarian lunch at 2.30pm. Dinner with only a few guests present was at 8.00pm. As Hitler's valet, Linge was also a member of the "Führerbegleitkommando" which provided personal security protection for Hitler. By 1944, he was also head of Hitler's personal service staff. Besides accompanying Hitler on all his travels, he was responsible for the accommodations; all the servants, mess orderlies, cooks, caterers and maids were "subordinate" to Linge.


title: Heinz Linge

text: Linge was one of many soldiers, servants, secretaries, and officers who moved into the Reich Chancellery and "Führerbunker" in Berlin in 1945. There he continued as Hitler's chief valet and protocol officer and was one of those who closely witnessed the last days of Hitler's life during the Battle of Berlin. He was also Hitler's personal military orderly. Linge delivered messages to Hitler and escorted people in to meet with Hitler. In addition, after Hitler's personal physician Theodor Morell left Berlin on 23 April, Linge and Dr. Werner Haase administered to Hitler the prepared medicine which had been left behind.


title: Heinz Linge

text: Two days before committing suicide on 30 April with Eva Braun, Hitler confided his suicide plan to Linge. He asked Linge to have their bodies wrapped in blankets and taken up to the garden to be cremated. Following his marriage to Eva Braun, Hitler spent the last night of his life lying awake and fully clothed on his bed.


title: Heinz Linge

text: On 30 April, Hitler had a last midday meal with his secretaries. After the meal, Linge spoke briefly with Eva Braun. He described her as looking pale and of having had little sleep. She thanked him for his service. Hitler then said farewell to each of his servants and subordinates. Thereafter, Hitler retired to his study at 3:15 p.m. There, Linge privately asked Hitler his orders. Hitler said that he was going to shoot himself and Linge knew what he had to do. "You must never allow my corpse to fall into the hands of the Russians", Hitler told Linge, "they would make a spectacle in Moscow out of my body and put it in waxworks". Further, he had given the order to break-out; Linge was to join one of the groups and try to get to the west. Linge asked for what they should now fight and Hitler replied, "For the coming man". Linge then saluted and left. In a 1974 episode of "The World at War", Linge and Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, describe Hitler's last minutes in the bunker. Linge explains that Hitler and his wife committed suicide in Hitler's private room in the bunker. He recalled how he went into Hitler's private study after hearing a sudden bang and found that Hitler and Braun were dead. Hitler had shot himself in the right temple. Braun had taken what Linge concluded must have been cyanide poison.


title: Heinz Linge

text: After the suicides of Hitler and Braun, their corpses were reportedly carried up the stairs to ground level and through the bunker's emergency exit to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were doused with petrol. After the first attempts to ignite the petrol did not work, Linge went back inside the bunker and returned with a thick roll of papers. Martin Bormann lit the papers and threw the torch onto the bodies. As the two corpses caught fire, a small group, including Bormann, Linge, Otto Günsche, Joseph Goebbels, Erich Kempka, Peter Högl, Ewald Lindloff, and Hans Reisser, raised their arms in salute as they stood just inside the bunker doorway.


title: Heinz Linge

text: At around 16:15, Linge ordered SS-"Untersturmführer" Heinz Krüger and SS-"Oberscharführer" Werner Schwiedel to roll up the rug in Hitler's study to burn it. The two men removed the blood-stained rug, carried it up the stairs and outside to the Chancellery garden. There the rug was placed on the ground and burned. On and off during the afternoon, the Soviets shelled the area in and around the Reich Chancellery. SS guards brought over additional cans of petrol to further burn the corpses, which lasted from 16:00 to around 18:30. Linge later wrote that he burned other personal effects of Hitler's while an SS bodyguard oversaw the burial of the burnt bodies in a shell crater.


title: Heinz Linge

text: Linge was one of the last to leave the "Führerbunker" in the early morning hours of 1 May 1945. He teamed up with Erich Kempka. Linge was later captured near See-Strasse. Several days later, after his identity was revealed, two Soviet officers escorted Linge by train to Moscow where he was thrown into the notorious Lubjanka Prison.


title: Heinz Linge

text: Linge spent ten years in Soviet captivity and was released in 1955. During the imprisonment, Linge and Günsche were interrogated by the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD; later superseded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs; MVD) about the circumstances of Hitler's death. A dossier was edited by Soviet NKVD officers and presented to Joseph Stalin on 30 December 1949. The report was published in 2005 as "The Hitler Book". Linge died in Hamburg, West Germany in 1980. His memoir, "With Hitler to the End", was published by Frontline Books-Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. of London in July 2009 with an introduction by historian Roger Moorhouse, author of "Killing Hitler".


title: Heinz Linge

text: Linge is portrayed by actor Thomas Limpinsel in Oliver Hirschbiegel's 2004 German film "Downfall". In Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's "" (1977), he is played by Hellmut Lange. In the 1971 Eastern Bloc co-production "Liberation V: The Final Assault", he was portrayed by East German actor Otto Busse.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Paul di Resta (born 16 April 1986) is a British racing driver from Scotland, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Peugeot Sport in their LMH entry. He drove in Formula One for Force India from to , and became a reserve driver for the Williams F1 team in , driving a single race for them as a substitute driver in . A former Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and Formula 3 Euro Series champion, di Resta did not secure a Formula One seat for 2014, instead rejoining Mercedes to race again in DTM. He is currently a reserve F1 driver for McLaren for the 2022 season, and a commentator for Sky Sports' coverage of F1.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta is of Italian descent and was born in Uphall, Scotland, and grew up in Bathgate, West Lothian. He is a former pupil of Bathgate Academy and supports Celtic Football Club. He now lives in Monaco, and is a cousin of racing drivers Dario and Marino Franchitti. His step-father was Scottish footballer Dougie McCracken. His younger brother, Stefan, has raced at an amateur level and his half-brother, Jon, is a goalkeeper for the Norwich City u23's.


title: Paul di Resta

text: He started his career in karting, racing in various competitive series of karts from 1994 until 2002. In 2001 he won the British JICA Championship.


title: Paul di Resta

text: He stepped up to single-seaters at the end of 2002, when he competed in the British Formula Renault Winter Series. He raced in British Formula Renault full-time in 2003 with the Eurotek Motorsport team, finishing seventh in the standings with one race win. He switched to Manor Motorsport for 2004, finishing third in the championship standings with four wins. He also entered some races of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with the Manor team. He also won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of The Year Award in 2004. The award had been won by his cousin Dario Franchitti in 1992.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta switched to the Formula Three Euroseries with Manor Motorsport in 2005, finishing tenth in the standings. For 2006 he moved to the ASM Formule 3 team, winning the championship with five wins, beating teammate and future Formula One World Drivers' Champion, Sebastian Vettel. Di Resta also won the 2006 BP Ultimate Masters at Circuit Park Zandvoort.


title: Paul di Resta

text: In 2007, di Resta switched from single-seaters to race in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) touring car racing series, for Mercedes. In the championship, he finished 5th overall behind drivers Mattias Ekström (who won his second DTM title), Bruno Spengler, Martin Tomczyk and Jamie Green. Di Resta was the highest driver in the standings to drive a non-2007 car. His performances earned him a 2008 Mercedes C Klasse for the 2008 season, in which he won two races and finished second in the points, four points behind eventual champion Timo Scheider of Audi. In 2009, he finished third overall behind Scheider and compatriot Gary Paffett. In 2010, he won three races in a row on the way to winning the championship.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta tested for the McLaren Formula One team, and was in the frame for a drive with the Force India team for the 2009 season due to the teams' shared engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz. However, Force India chose to retain Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, with Vitantonio Liuzzi as reserve driver.


title: Paul di Resta

text: In December 2009, with Fisichella having moved to Ferrari and Liuzzi being promoted to the race team, di Resta took part in a test with the team at the Jerez circuit alongside J. R. Hildebrand. At the Autosport International show in January 2010, he was said to be close to a deal as the team's test and reserve driver for the 2010 season. The deal was announced on 2 February. Di Resta made his Formula One race meeting début at the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, where he took part in the first free practice session in place of Sutil and finished 11th. He drove in the first practice session of all the following races until the Monaco Grand Prix where he did not take part. He resumed driving for the team at the European Grand Prix and the following British Grand Prix. After sitting out the German Grand Prix he returned for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Di Resta subsequently sat out the Belgian Grand Prix as Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil needed as much track-time as possible to get the feeling of the new parts. He participated in practice for the Italian Grand Prix, but did not participate in the Singapore or Japanese Grands Prix. The team elected that di Resta should miss the Korean Grand Prix to allow Liuzzi and Sutil to get used to the new track for the race.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta joined Adrian Sutil in the Force India Formula One racing team for the season, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi. He scored his first championship point at his first race, the , after both Saubers were disqualified. This was followed by another 10th place in Malaysia, 11th in China, and a retirement in Turkey, where he left the pits with a loose wheel. He was running fifth in Canada until a collision with Nick Heidfeld left him with a damaged car and a drive-through penalty, and later crashed out of the race on lap 67. He qualified sixth at Silverstone but finished 15th after a long pitstop due to a tyre mix-up.


title: Paul di Resta

text: His third points-scoring finish of the season came in Hungary, where he finished seventh in changeable conditions. In the he finished 8th. This was followed by a career-best sixth-place finish in Singapore, ahead of teammate Sutil, who finished eighth. He finished tenth in Korea, ninth in Abu Dhabi and eighth in Brazil.


title: Paul di Resta

text: On 16 December 2011, it was announced that he was to be retained by Force India for the 2012 season, with Nico Hülkenberg taking the place of Sutil as his teammate. He qualified 15th for the season opener in Australia and finished 10th in the race, passing Jean-Éric Vergne and Nico Rosberg on the final lap. He qualified 14th for the , and finished seventh in the wet race. He was 12th in China. In Bahrain he qualified inside the top ten, having missed the second free practice session after several members of the team were caught up in a petrol bomb incident. Using a two-stop strategy he took sixth place in the race, which equalled his previous career-best result. He was 14th in Spain, a lap behind winner Pastor Maldonado; seventh in Monaco having started 15th on the grid; and 11th in Montreal. At the European Grand Prix he was the only driver on the grid who performed a one-stop strategy and came 7th whilst his teammate, Nico Hülkenberg, finished in 5th position.


title: Paul di Resta

text: After failing to score a point in the next three races, di Resta finished tenth in Belgium. The following weekend, at the Italian Grand Prix, di Resta showed strong pace in qualifying, setting the fourth fastest time in Q3, but took a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change to start the Grand Prix in ninth. He finished the race in eighth. At the Singapore Grand Prix, he qualified sixth and finished a career-best fourth, after the retirements of Maldonado and Hamilton. The final five races of the season resulted in only one further points-scoring finish – 9th place in Abu Dhabi.


title: Paul di Resta

text: On 31 January 2013, Force India confirmed di Resta would race for the team for a third consecutive season in . After qualifying outside the top ten in Australia, di Resta managed to battle through into the points, finishing just behind his teammate, Adrian Sutil in eighth place. In Malaysia, however di Resta retired after his car's wheel nuts kept jamming, and the team was ultimately forced to retire both cars.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Qualifying in 11th place for the Chinese Grand Prix, the race saw him finish in eighth place and he obtained four points.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta matched his career best result in Bahrain with a fourth place, being overtaken close to the end by Lotus's Romain Grosjean, depriving the Scot of a maiden podium. He followed that up with a seventh in Spain.


title: Paul di Resta

text: A disappointing qualifying session in the wet meant di Resta started from 17th in Monaco, however initially going for an aggressive two stop strategy; luck played its part and due to a red flag he was able to use a new set of tyres, and made ground to ninth-place finish with some good overtakes.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Another disappointing qualifying session at the next race in Canada saw di Resta starting in 17th position yet again. Starting on the harder medium compound tyre, di Resta was able to run the longest of all drivers on his first stint, going 56 laps before finally making his only pit stop. The strategy worked as di Resta finished the race in 7th.


title: Paul di Resta

text: After six consecutive point finishes, di Resta struggled in the later part of the season as his team Force India struggled to cope with new Pirelli tyres and he recorded five consecutive retirements.


title: Paul di Resta

text: On 12 December, it was announced that he would not be retained as a driver with Force India for the season.


title: Paul di Resta

text: After a two-year absence from the sport, di Resta returned to Formula One as reserve driver for Williams.


title: Paul di Resta

text: He replaced lead driver Felipe Massa for qualifying and the race at the as the Brazilian recovered from an illness. This marked di Resta's first F1 start in almost four years, whilst also becoming the first British driver for Williams since Jenson Button in and Scottish driver since David Coulthard in . His qualifying results were described as an "unbelievable job" by Mercedes F1 Director Toto Wolff, having competed without having driven the FW40 prior to the session. He ended the day in 19th place ahead of Marcus Ericsson and was 0.766s off his teammate Lance Stroll. He retired in the race after 60 laps.


title: Paul di Resta

text: After another absence from Formula One, di Resta returned to the sport as a reserve driver after McLaren put him on standby for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom.


title: Paul di Resta

text: McLaren retained di Resta as a stand-in reserve driver for the and seasons while he competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship.


title: Paul di Resta

text: In May 2014, di Resta returned to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series driving for HWA Team, who manage the AMG Mercedes team in DTM. Di Resta finished the 2014 season in 15th place having scored points only three times, all three being 4th-place finishes.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Di Resta finished the 2018 season in 3rd place in the driver's championship, after winning three races at Hungaroring, Brands Hatch, and Misano.


title: Paul di Resta

text: In 2019, after five seasons driving for Mercedes, di Resta joined the Swiss motor racing team R-Motorsport, driving the Aston Martin Vantage DTM. Di Resta finished in 16th place having scored points only four times.


title: Paul di Resta

text: In 2018, Paul di Resta raced in the Asian Le Mans Series for United Autosports, scoring one win and 4 podiums alongside Philip Hanson and eventually winning the 2018-19 Asian Le Mans Series championship.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Following their Asian Le Mans Series win, Di Resta and United Autosport competed in the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship going onto to win the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque in the LMP2 Class and finishing 5th overall.


title: Paul di Resta

text: On February 8, 2021, Peugeot Sport revealed di Resta will drive their LMH Hypercar entry in the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Éric Vergne. He, and the Peugeot team, competed in the last three races of the season with a P4 finish in the 6 Hours of Fuji and two retirements in the 6 Hours of Monza and the 8 Hours of Bahrain. In the end, Di Resta finished in P10 in the Driver's championship.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Since 2016, Di Resta has been a regular contributor to the Sky Sports F1 channel. He is a common presence as a co-commentator, analyst and one of the insiders in "Sky Race Control" during practices, qualifying sessions and races, alongside Jenson Button, Karun Chandhok, Anthony Davidson, Damon Hill, Nico Rosberg, and Johnny Herbert.


title: Paul di Resta

text: Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Association football is the most popular sport in nearly every African country, and thirteen members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have competed at the sport's biggest event – the men's FIFA World Cup. The highest ranked result in the World Cup for an African team is 4th place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup by Morocco.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The team ranking in each tournament is according to FIFA. The rankings, apart from the top four positions (top two in 1930), are not a result of direct competition between the teams; instead, teams eliminated in the same round are ranked by their full results in the tournament.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws. 3 points per win, 1 point per draw and 0 points per loss.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: This table shows for each world cup the number of countries at the World Cup, the number of entries (#E) from around the world (including any rejections and withdrawals), the number of African entries (#A), how many of those African entries withdrew (#A-) before/during qualification or were rejected by FIFA, the African representatives at the World Cup finals, the number of World Cup Qualifiers each African representative had to play to get to the World Cup (#WCQ), the furthest stage they reached, their results, and their coaches.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup was the only one without any qualification process. No African teams entered.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The Pharaohs of Egypt were the only African team to apply to feature at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. As there were 32 countries competing for 16 places, FIFA organized the first qualification round. Egypt was placed in a group with Turkey and Palestine, then a British mandate. Turkey withdrew, and Egypt beat Palestine 7–1 in Cairo and 4–1 in Jerusalem to qualify for the World Cup finals.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The 1934 FIFA World Cup finals was organized as a straight knock-out. Egypt lost 4–2 to Hungary in Naples with Abdulrahman Fawzi scoring twice to become the first African to score at the World Cup finals. However, a third goal by Fawzi was ruled offside by the Italian referee despite the player having dribbled from the middle of the pitch, and the fourth Hungarian goal involved a scuffle where the Hungarian striker broke the Egyptian goalkeeper's nose with his elbow. The Italian newspapers heavily criticized their referee, but Egypt sailed home and only returned to the World Cup finals 56 years later.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Egypt was the only African country to apply to compete at the 1938 FIFA World Cup, but withdrew before playing any matches.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Egypt was the only African country to apply to compete at the 1954 World Cup. They were placed in a two-team group with Italy, but lost 1–2 in Cairo and 1–5 in Milan, and thus did not qualify for the World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan all applied to enter the qualification process for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but Ethiopia's entry was rejected by FIFA.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Egypt and Sudan competed in an Africa/Asia zone with ten Asian countries for one spot at the World Cup. Egypt progressed to the next round after Cyprus withdrew, but then itself withdrew. Sudan defeated Syria 2–1 on aggregate but eventually withdrew in protest at having to play Israel. (Eventually, the spot originally reserved for Africa and Asia was taken by Wales.)


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Seven African countries entered the qualification process for the 1962 FIFA World Cup : Ghana, United Arab Republic (a joint football association by Egypt and Syria, who were politically united between 1958 and 1961), Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan and Tunisia. Ethiopia entered through the UEFA qualification process, where it was eliminated by Israel, while the rest entered through the CAF qualification process. Both Sudan and U.A.R. withdrew as FIFA would not allow them to rearrange matches to avoid the monsoon season, so the four teams formed two two-team groups. In the first group, Morocco and Tunisia both beat each other 2–1 at home, and then played a third match at a neutral location (Palermo, Italy) which ended in a 1–1 draw after extra time. Since penalty shootouts were not used by FIFA till the 1970s, Morocco advanced by drawing lots to eliminate Tunisia. Morocco then eliminated Ghana with a draw and a win to proceed to a UEFA/CAF playoff with Spain. They lost both legs of this playoff, meaning that no African nation made it to the World Cup finals for the fifth time in a row.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Seventeen African countries entered the qualification process for the 1966 FIFA World Cup : Algeria, Cameroon, French Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Tunisia. FIFA rejected the application of French Congo, and had already suspended South Africa for apartheid, resulting in their disqualification.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: FIFA's allocation of only one place to three continents (Africa, Asia, Oceania) was subject to significant criticism, especially given the large increase in applications from newly independent African countries. After FIFA confirmed the allocation, the remaining fifteen African nations withdrew in protest.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Fourteen African countries entered the qualification process for the 1970 World Cup : Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, Zaire, and Zambia. FIFA rejected the applications of Guinea and Zaire. The Atlas Lions of Morocco played ten matches to qualify for the single CAF spot at the World Cup, advancing along the way past Tunisia by virtue of a coin toss.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Rhodesia, having been expelled from CAF for having a white minority government, entered through the Asia/Oceania qualifying group, where they had to play against Australia in Portuguese-held Mozambique (there was a boycott against playing matches in Rhodesia). The first two matches were drawn, thanks in large part to the excellent Rhodesian goalkeeper Robin Jordan, and the desperate Australians hired a Mozambican sangoma to 'curse' him. In the third match, Jordan was taken off injured after a collision with another player, Australia won 3–1, then refused to pay the sangoma, got 'cursed' by the irate man, and were eliminated two weeks later by Israel. Meanwhile, Rhodesia's CAF expulsion was soon followed by a FIFA expulsion, with Zimbabwe readmitted in 1980.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: At the 1970 World Cup, Morocco was placed in Group 4 along with West Germany, Peru, and Bulgaria. They lost 1–2 to eventual semi-finalists West Germany, lost 0–3 to Peru, and drew 1–1 with Bulgaria. The two goalscorers were Houmane Jarir (against West Germany) and Maouhoub Ghazouani (against Bulgaria), who were thus the second and third ever African goalscorers at the World Cup. Morocco finished bottom of the group, on goal difference, with one point – the first African point in the World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 24 African countries entered the qualification process for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, with the Leopards of Zaire eventually qualifying quite comfortably, scoring 18 goals and conceding 5 in the ten matches they played to qualify.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: At the 1974 FIFA World Cup, Zaire were placed in Group 2 along with Scotland, Yugoslavia (home of Zaire coach and 1970 Morocco coach Blagoje Vidinić), and Brazil. In their first match against Scotland, they impressed with their fast attacking style, and lost just 0–2. Scottish centre-half Jim Holton said after the match "Let's face it, we underestimated them. For fifteen minutes I wondered what the hell was going on, where the devil had this lot come from, playing stuff like that!"


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The next opponents Yugoslavia had noted holes in the Zairean defence, and fully exploited them to hammer Zaire 9–0 in a then record win for World Cup finals, with all but three of their outfield players getting on the scoresheet. Zaire striker Mulamba Ndaye, who was sent off for protesting that a goal by the Yugoslavians was offside, said after the match, "The management had made off with our match bonuses, and we'd threatened not to play the game. Frankly we'd lost our morale. We could easily have let in 20 goals."


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: After the defeat, the Zairean team were told by the country's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko – who had rewarded the players for qualifying with a house and a car each – not to come home if defending champions Brazil beat them 4–0 or worse. Zaire managed to keep Brazil to merely a 0–3 defeat with Zairean defender Mwepu Ilunga receiving a yellow card for interfering with a free kick. Zaire left the tournament without scoring a goal.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 26 African countries entered the qualification process for 1 spot at the 1978 FIFA World Cup. In comparison, 22 Asia/Oceania countries also competed for 1 spot, while 31 European countries competed for 8.5 spots. Les Aigles de Carthage (The Carthage Eagles) of Tunisia eventually qualified, along the way eliminating Morocco in the first ever penalty shootout in World Cup qualification history. This was a major change for Tunisia, who had been eliminated by Morocco quite literally by chance on three previous occasions in the 1960s.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Tunisia were placed in Group 2 with West Germany, Poland, and Mexico. After Zaire's fate in 1974, they were not expected to do well. They were 1–0 down to Mexico at half-time when their Tunisian coach Abdelmajid Chetali told them that they treated their opponents with too much respect and that they could still win the game if they tackled hard and imposed their belief and self-confidence. Buoyed by the pep talk, the North Africans scored three times in the second half to win 3–1 and become the first African team to win a match at the World Cup. They lost their next match to Poland 1–0, missing several chances, and held West Germany to a goalless draw. While this was not enough to progress to the next round, African football pride had been restored.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: This was the first World Cup with 24 teams, and Africa's representation was doubled. So 29 African countries competed for 2 spots in World Cup qualification. In comparison, 21 Asian nations also competed for 2 spots, but 33 European nations competed for 13 spots. 1978 finalists Tunisia were eliminated in the first round by Nigeria on penalties. Four series of knockout rounds were played, with the final two spots going down to Nigeria vs Algeria, and Morocco vs Cameroon. Both Les Fennecs" "(The Desert Foxes)" of Algeria and "Les Lions Indomptables (The Indomitable Lions) of Cameroon won 2–0 away and 2–1 at home and qualified for the World Cup for the first time.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Cameroon were placed in Group 1, where they surprised everyone by remaining undefeated. They drew 0–0 with Peru, 0–0 with Poland, and 1–1 with Italy. Grégoire Mbida scored Cameroon's first World Cup finals goal. Italy had also drawn its three matches, so also had a goal difference of 0, but had scored two goals to Cameroon's one, so Cameroon were eliminated. This was especially painful because in their opening match against Peru, Cameroon striker Roger Milla had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Algeria were placed in Group 2 with West Germany, Austria, and Chile. The Africans produced a major upset in the first match, beating West Germany 2–1 with goals by Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi. They lost their second match 0–2 to Austria, then produced another surprise by beating Chile 3–2. The day after the Algeria vs Chile match, West Germany and Austria played the final group match in Gijón knowing that a 1–0 or 2–0 win for West Germany would result in both European teams qualifying at the expense of Algeria on goal difference. West Germany scored after ten minutes, and then both teams appeared to pass the ball aimlessly around for the remaining 80 minutes.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: This performance was widely deplored by all observers. The Spanish crowd shouted, "Fuera, fuera!" ("Out, out!") while angry Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players to suggest that the game was fixed. Even the two sides' fans were disgusted, with an Austrian television commentator advising viewers to turn off their TV sets, a German television commentator refusing to commentate further, and a German fan burning his national flag in protest. Furious Algerian football officials lodged an official protest, but the two teams denied any collusion. As nothing could be proved and the two teams had technically broken no rules, FIFA allowed the result to stand. FIFA did change the rules – in future World Cups, the final two games in each group are played simultaneously. Thus Algeria were eliminated from the 1982 FIFA World Cup at the first hurdle despite two wins.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: As with 1982, 29 African countries entered the qualification process for two spots at the World Cup. There were four series of knockout rounds, with four Mediterranean countries making the final round. Algeria beat neighbours Tunisia 7–1 on aggregate and becomes the first African team to qualify consecutively for the second time to World Cup. Morocco beat Libya 3–1 on aggregate and also qualified for their second World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Algeria were placed in Group D with Brazil, Spain, and Northern Ireland. They did not reach the heights of its previous finals appearance, drawing 1–1 with Northern Ireland, losing 0–1 to Brazil, and losing 0–3 to Spain.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Morocco shocked both Poland and England with goalless draws, and then defeated Portugal 3–1 to become the first African team to progress beyond the first round. In the second round, they faced a West German side that had seven survivors from the Disgrace of Gijón match. Goalkeeper Badou Zaki kept Morocco in the game with a series of excellent saves, but was finally beaten in the 87th minute by Gijón substitute Lothar Matthäus. West Germany won 1–0 and went on to reach their second successive final.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 26 African countries entered the qualification process for 2 spots at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. This was the first time African qualification moved from a mostly straight home-away knockout format to include group stages early on. Finally it came down to four teams playing in two playoffs for the final: Algeria vs Egypt and Tunisia vs Cameroon. Cameroon beat Tunisia 2–0 at home and 1–0 away, and qualified for their second World Cup. However, the playoff between the two North African sides was significantly more ill-tempered.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: After a goalless draw in Constantine, Egypt beat Algeria 1–0 in Cairo to qualify for the World Cup. After the Cairo match, an Algerian player gouged out an Egyptian team doctor's eye with a broken bottle. The player blamed, Lakhdar Belloumi (who scored the winning goal in Algeria's 2–1 defeat of West Germany in 1982), was not allowed to travel outside Algeria owing to an Interpol international arrest warrant for twenty years until the (financially compensated) Egyptian doctor dropped the charges in 2009. Belloumi always claimed innocence in the incident, with him and other players pointing the finger at Algerian goalkeeper Kamel Kadri instead.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: There was tragedy during the second round Group C match between Nigeria and Angola on 12 August 1989 at the Lagos National Stadium when 24-year-old Nigerian midfielder (and qualified lawyer) Samuel Okwaraji collapsed and died of congestive heart failure in the 77th minute.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Egypt were placed in Group F with England, Netherlands, and Ireland. It turned out to be one of the tightest groups in World Cup history, with five draws in six games. Egypt drew 1–1 with the Netherlands, drew 0–0 with Ireland, but lost their final match 0–1 to England. Egypt's only goal of the tournament was a penalty by Magdi Abdelghani against the Netherlands. Egypt were thus eliminated from World Cup, still without a win after losing their only match in 1934.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Cameroon were undoubtedly the surprise package of the tournament. In their first match, they shocked Diego Maradona's defending champions Argentina 1–0 through a goal by François Omam-Biyik, despite finishing their match with nine men. In their next match, they defeated Romania 2–1 thanks to two goals from 38-year-old substitute Roger Milla. These were Milla's first official goals in the World Cup; he had had a goal against Peru wrongly disallowed for offside during the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Having already qualified for the next round, Cameroon then suffered their first loss (after three draws and two wins) in World Cup history, losing 4–0 to the already eliminated Soviet Union. In the second round, Cameroon defeated Colombia 2–1, with Milla again coming on as a second-half substitute to score twice, famously dispossessing Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita for one of them. By this time, Roger Milla, his post-goal celebrations, and Cameroon had firmly implanted themselves in the global footballing consciousness. In the quarter finals, they were seven minutes from qualifying for the semi-finals when England were awarded a penalty. England won the match 3–2 after extra time, with three of the five goals coming from penalties (1 for Cameroon, 2 for England).


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 40 African countries entered the qualification process for 3 spots at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The extra spot was awarded after the strong performances of Cameroon and Egypt at Italia 90. However, only 28 played all their matches after FIFA rejected Libya (due to UN sanctions) and 11 other nations withdrew at various stages. There was a new qualification format, with two group stages. The big casualty of the first stage was 1990 finalists Egypt, as crowd trouble in Cairo turned a 2–1 home victory over Zimbabwe into a crucial 0–0 draw when FIFA ordered the match replayed at a neutral location.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In the new second stage of qualification were three groups of three, with winners qualifying for the World Cup. The Super Eagles of Nigeria won Group A on goal difference, beating both Ivory Coast and Algeria 4–1 in Lagos. In Group C, Cameroon won the group with 3 wins and a loss away to second placed Zimbabwe, with Guinea coming third.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group B were Morocco, Senegal, and Zambia. In the first match, Morocco beat Senegal 1–0. In the second match, Zambia were to face Senegal in Dakar. However, the plane carrying the Zambian team crashed en route on 28 April 1993. The crash, attributed to mechanical problems and pilot error, killed all thirty people on board, including nearly the entire football team – 18 players – and coaches, support staff, and plane crew. (The Zambian government had yet to release a report on the investigation of the crash of the military plane even ten years later.) Only two European-based players from the original squad missed the flight – Charles Musonda of Anderlecht, who was injured, and captain Kalusha Bwalya, who was flying in from Europe where he played with PSV Eindhoven. All matches in the group were postponed for a month. Zambia hastily put together a new team, captained by Bwalya, and defeated Morocco 2–1 in Lusaka in the first match with the new team with goals from Kalusha Bwalya and Johnson Bwalya (not related). However, they lost their final group match 0–1 to Morocco in Casablanca and Morocco won Group B by one point. Amazingly, the rebuilt Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) also went on to reach the finals of the 1994 African Cup of Nations.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: At the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals in the U.S., Cameroon drew their first game in Group B with eventual semi-finalists Sweden 2–2 and lost their second to eventual winners Brazil 0–3. They were 0–3 down to Russia in their third match when half-time substitute Roger Milla scored in the 46th minute (becoming at 42 the oldest man ever to score at the World Cup finals) and sparked brief hopes of a miracle comeback. However, the final score was a 1–6 loss to Russia, with Oleg Salenko netting a record-breaking five goals in vain. In Group F, Morocco lost its three matches by a goal each, 0–1 to Belgium, 1–2 to Saudi Arabia, and 1–2 to the Netherlands.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group D, Nigeria thumped eventual semi-finalists Bulgaria 3–0, then fell to a 1–2 loss to Argentina before beating Greece 2–0. Nigeria, Bulgaria, and Argentina all finished on six points and qualified for the second round. In the second round, Nigeria faced Italy. Emmanuel Amuneke scored in the 25th minute, leaving Nigeria with a 1–0 lead two minutes from the next round when Roberto Baggio scored in the 88th minute. Baggio scored again in extra time to send Nigeria home.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: This was the third successive World Cup where an African team progressed beyond the first stage, after Morocco in 1986 and Cameroon in 1990. This was a major factor in FIFA increasing Africa's allocation from 3 to 5 spots as the World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 four years later.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 38 African countries entered the qualification process for 5 spots at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the two new spots resulting from the tournament's expansion from 24 to 32 teams. This was the first time that three points, instead of two, were awarded for a win. Burundi won both their first round qualification matches but then had to withdraw due to civil war. Sierra Leone, who they had just eliminated, took their place in the second round, and then became the first nation in World Cup qualifying history to be eliminated twice in the same qualifying campaign. Eventually, Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia qualified for the World Cup finals along with newcomers Bafana Bafana of South Africa, who had only been readmitted to FIFA in 1992.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The five African teams all took European coaches (three Frenchmen, one Serb, one Pole) to the finals, making it the first time since 1974 that there was no African coach at the World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group A, Morocco drew their first match 2–2 with Norway and then lost 0–3 to Brazil. The last two matches in the group were played simultaneously (as they had after the Disgrace of Gijón in 1982) – with ten minutes left, Morocco were leading Scotland 2–0 while Brazil led Norway 1–0. But Norway scored twice in the 83rd and 88th minutes to beat Brazil 2–1. Morocco also scored once more to beat Scotland 3–0, but went home.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group B, Cameroon drew their first match 1–1 with Austria (the Austrians equalizing in the 90th minute) but then lost 0–3 to Italy. Cameroon could have progressed if they won their final group match against Chile, but they drew 1–1 and went home. During the final match, Cameroon's Rigobert Song became the first man to pick up red cards at two World Cups – he was sent off as a 17-year-old against Brazil in 1994. (The second man to be red carded at two World Cups would be Zinedine Zidane eight years later.)


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group C, South Africa began their debut World Cup finals campaign with a 0–3 loss to hosts and eventual champions France. They then drew 1–1 with Denmark, Benni McCarthy scoring their first World Cup finals goal. They needed to win big in their final match against Saudi Arabia but could only manage a 2–2 draw, giving away two penalties and only managing to equalize late into injury time with their own penalty, taken by brace-scorer Shaun Bartlett.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group D, Nigeria opened with a 3–2 win over fancied Spain and another 1–0 win over Bulgaria. Having qualified for the next stage, they then lost 1–3 to Paraguay. Both Nigeria and Paraguay qualified for the next stage, with Spain losing out despite thumping Bulgaria 6–1. However, in the Round of 16, Nigeria were beaten 1–4 by Denmark. All Nigeria's six goals in the tournament came from six different players.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group G, Tunisia lost their first two matches 0–2 to England and 0–1 to Colombia. They then managed to draw 1–1 with Romania, who had won their first two matches and topped the group. Thus Tunisia's second appearance at the World Cup (after 1978) ended in them scoring only one goal, a penalty.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Thus only 2 of Africa's 5 representatives came away with at least one win. However, there was an African representative in the second round for the fourth time in succession.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 51 African countries entered the qualification process for five spots at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four of the five 1998 finalists again made it through, with Les Lions de la Teranga (Teranga Lions) of Senegal replacing Morocco. Senegal and Morocco topped the same qualification group each with four wins, three draws, and a loss, but Senegal had a seven-goal superior goal difference thanks to their 9–0 aggregate thrashings of group minnows Namibia. In contrast, the Namibians had managed to hold Morocco to a goalless draw in Windhoek.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Like Cameroon 12 years earlier, Senegal started with a shock 1–0 win over the defending champions and went on to reach the quarter finals. In Group A, after beating France 1–0 with a goal from Papa Bouba Diop, they drew 1–1 with eventual group winners Denmark. In their final match against Uruguay, they were leading 3–0 at half-time. In the second half, the South Americans – for whom a win would have them progress at Senegal's expense – scored twice, and then a third time with an 88th-minute penalty kick. Senegal survived the frenetic final minutes of the game to hang on to a 3–3 result. Thus Denmark and Senegal progressed to the next round while former champions Uruguay and France went home. In the Round of 16, a golden goal in extra time (to add to his 37th-minute strike) from Henri Camara took Senegal 2–1 past Sweden after extra time. But in the quarter-finals against Turkey, they were eliminated by a golden goal four minutes into extra time.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group B, South Africa drew 2–2 with Paraguay with an injury time penalty, then scored their first ever World Cup win by beating Slovenia 1–0. However a 2–3 loss to Spain then sent South Africa home. In Group E, Cameroon drew 1–1 with Republic of Ireland, beat Saudi Arabia 1–0, and then lost 0–2 to Germany. In Group F, Nigeria lost 0–1 to Argentina, lost 1–2 to Sweden, and having been eliminated, held England to a 0–0 draw. In Group H, Tunisia lost 0–2 to Russia, drew 1–1 with Belgium, and lost 0–2 to co-hosts Japan.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Of Africa's five representatives, three won at least once, but only one progressed beyond the first round. Still, Senegal's surprise run made it the fifth successive time an African nation had made it to the Round of 16, and the second time an African country had reached the quarter finals. Three of the five African nations (South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia) took a local coach to the World Cup; only one of those three scored a win.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: 51 African countries entered the race for 5 spots at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in a qualification process that doubled as one for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. In the final qualification round, teams were organized into five groups of six teams, with winners qualifying for the World Cup and the top three for the continental tournament. More matches were needed to qualify – while at both the 1998 and 2002 32-team World Cups, 3 of the 5 African teams played only 6 matches to get to the finals, here 3 of the 5 teams that qualified played 12 matches.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Four of Africa's five representatives to the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals were debutants, in contrast to 2002 when four of five had appeared at the previous World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group 1, Togo beat 2002 World Cup quarterfinalists Senegal by two points. The Black Stars of Ghana won Group 2 by five points while in Group 3, Les Éléphants of Ivory Coast lost both its matches to Cameroon but won the group since Cameroon drew too often. In Group 5, Tunisia won the group one point ahead of 1998 finalists and perennial rivals Morocco. Although Morocco was the only African team (of those who played a match) to remain undefeated, it drew half its matches. In Group 4, Angola and Nigeria both finished with 21 points after 10 matches, with Nigeria having a far superior goal difference thanks largely to scoring five goals against both Algeria and 3rd placed Zimbabwe in their last two matches. However, it had already been decided that head-to-head results were to be used to break such ties in 2006 World Cup Qualification before goal difference. The Palancas Negras (Black Antelopes) of Angola, having beaten Nigeria 2–1 on aggregate, qualified for the World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: At the World Cup Finals, Ivory Coast lost its first two Group C matches 1–2 to Argentina and 1–2 to the Netherlands before coming back from 0–2 down to beat Serbia and Montenegro 3–2. In Group D, Angola – the only African team at the finals with a local coach (Luís Oliveira Gonçalves) – lost their first match 0–1 to Portugal, then drew 0–0 with Mexico and 1–1 with Iran. In Group G, Togo made more news off the pitch with disputes over team bonuses causing coach Otto Pfister to walk out on the team until just before the first match and FIFA officials having to step in to stop players threatening to boycott the second match. Togo lost 1–2 to South Korea, lost 0–2 to Switzerland, and 0–2 to eventual finalists France. In Group H, Tunisia drew 2–2 with Saudi Arabia, lost 1–3 to Spain (including an injury time penalty from Fernando Torres), and 0–1 to Ukraine.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In Group E, Ghana began with up a 0–2 loss to eventual winners Italy with a 2–0 win over the Czech Republic and a 2–1 win over the U.S. Thus the debutants ensured an African representative in the Round of 16 for the sixth successive World Cup. They lost 3–0 to Brazil in the Round of 16. The match was later alleged to have been fixed, charges immediately denied by the Ghana Football Association.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: While for the sixth successive time there was an African team in the Round of 16, Africa remained the only continent (other than Oceania) to never have two teams reach the Round of 16 at the same World Cup.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the first time that the FIFA World Cup was staged in Africa, with South Africa being the hosts and thus qualifying automatically, to be a sixth African team in the draw alongside the now-regular five who made it through the qualifying process. Their national team became the first World Cup hosts to get knocked out in the first round, though only on goal difference after a draw with Mexico in their opening match (in which South Africa's Katlego Mphela hit the post in the last minute), then a 3-0 loss to Uruguay followed by a 2-1 win over France (in which Mphela was again unlucky, scoring one of the goals but being denied three more by two fine saves and the woodwork again): Mexico finished second ahead of them by virtue of a smaller loss to Uruguay and a larger win over France. Nigeria, Algeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon also exited the tournament after the Group stages.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: However, Ghana progressed beyond the group stages of the FIFA World Cup for the second time in a row, and defeated the U.S. 2–1 after extra time in the Round of 16, which saw them reach the quarter-finals, becoming the third African nation to do so. In the quarter-finals, they were eliminated by Uruguay. Ghana were defeated by Uruguay on penalties after Luis Suárez controversially handballed on the goal line deep into extra time, denying Ghana an almost certain winning goal. The penalty that followed was missed by Asamoah Gyan. Had Ghana won their quarter final they would have become the very first African nation to progress to the semifinals of the world cup. Of the 32 countries that participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, FIFA ranked Ghana 7th.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil marked the first time more than one African team went beyond the group stages. While Ghana and Cameroon both collected disappointing results (apart from Ghana's 2–2 draw with later champions Germany, which saw them becoming the only team not to lose against the Germans in the entire tournament) and eventually ended fourth in their group, Ivory Coast were also knocked out in the first round after a last-minute penalty kick against Greece and ended third in Group C, above Japan, whom they had defeated 2–1 in their first match.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Africa's pride, however, was saved by both Nigeria and Algeria. The Nigerians kicked off their Group F campaign with a disappointing 0–0 draw against Iran, before eventually defeating debutants Bosnia and Herzegovina 1–0. Stephen Keshi's team went down 3–2 to later finalists Argentina in their final match, leaving them on the brink of elimination, but Iran lost to the Bosnians 3–1 and Nigeria went through to the Round of 16 for the third time in history, after 1998 and 1994.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Algeria lost 2–1 to a strong Belgium in their opening match in Group H, a loss which was followed by an unexpected 4–2 victory over the South Korea in Porto Alegre in their second match. In their final Group H encounter, a hard-won 1–1 draw with Russia was enough to send the North Africans through to the next round.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: In the Round of 16, both African teams fell just short to beat the likes of France (Nigeria) and Germany (Algeria), but the fact that two African nations had reached that far, was a reason to be optimistic about the future of African football.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: During the 2014 edition, Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan became Africa's all-time leading topscorer at the FIFA World Cup, having scored 6 goals in 3 World Cups, thus exceeding Cameroon veteran Roger Milla's 5 goals.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia saw early elimination for Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia who all lost their first two group games. Nigeria also lost their first group game against Croatia 2–0, but the team got a win in their second game, over Iceland 2–0, leaving them with a chance if they could get a result against 2014 finalists Argentina. However, they lost the decisive game, Argentina scoring the winner with just four minutes left to win 2-1, and were eliminated after finishing third in Group D.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Senegal won their opening game against Poland 2–1, and drew their second game against Japan 2-2, leaving them needing a draw in their final game against Colombia to be sure of progressing. However, they went down 0–1, and because Japan lost 0–1 as well, Senegal and Japan were level on points (4), goal difference (+0), goals scored (4) and on the head-to-head result between the teams (2-2). However, they bowed out due to the fair play tiebreaker - the first team ever to be eliminated by this particular tiebreaker method, implemented for the first time this year - having received six yellow cards to Japan's four over the course of the three games, finishing third in Group H.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Out of 54 teams that entered the qualifying competition, Africa's five qualifiers for the World Cup were Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroon and Ghana. Ghana's qualification was a particularly close-run thing: needing to win their last match against South Africa in the second-round group stage, their 1-0 win saw them just pip South Africa on goals scored, the teams being level on goal difference and points. The other nine group winners all won their groups outright on points, to put ten teams into the third round consisting of five two-legged playoffs. And then in Ghana's play-off against Nigeria, both matches were drawn 0-0 and 1-1, but Ghana qualified on away goals. Cameroon also required the away-goals rule against Algeria, and Senegal went through only on a penalty shoot-out against Egypt. Morocco defeated DR Congo, and Tunisia defeated Mali, to complete the third qualification round. All five African teams won at least one match, four of them defeating the group's official top-seed favourites (although this includes hosts Qatar, who were only a "top seed" by virtue of being the hosts). Senegal and Morocco in fact were each to score two victories in the group stages (the first time two African teams had achieved this in the same World Cup), en route to qualifying for the second round.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Senegal, in Group A, had to play Holland in their opening match, giving a good account of themselves but conceding two late goals to lose 2-0. They performed better against the host team Qatar, beating them 3-1, and found themselves in the position of needing to beat Ecuador in their final match to qualify. They duly won 2-1 to finish second in their group behind the Dutch, and set up a second-round tie against England - becoming in the process the first African team to win two matches in the group stage since Nigeria in 1998. Senegal had a couple of good chances early on - Sarr had one shot saved, and spooned another over the bar - but England's Henderson and Kane both scored before half-time, and another was added afterwards by Saka, to preserve their unbeaten record against African nations with a 3-0 win and end Senegal's run.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Tunisia, in Group D, drew their opening match with Denmark 0-0, but then lost 1-0 to Australia and went into their final match needing to beat the current world champions, France and hoping for a draw in the other match. Tunisia scored the upset win that they needed - a late French equalizer being denied for offside - but Australia and Denmark failed to oblige, Australia's victory keeping them in second place ahead of the African team, who finished third in the group.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Morocco fared better in Group F. Although drawn in a group with Croatia and Belgium, who had come second and third in the previous 2018 FIFA World Cup, they managed a 0-0 draw against Croatia and followed up with a 2-0 victory over Belgium. A draw against group minnows Canada, the latter already mathematically eliminated, would have been enough to qualify for the second stage, and in fact Morocco took a 2-0 lead with half an hour gone. They conceded an own-goal just before half-time, but that was the final goal of the game: Morocco's 2-1 victory was enough not just to qualify but to win the group, thanks to a draw between Belgium and Croatia. Morocco thus became the first African side to go through the group stage unbeaten since Senegal in 2002 (Morocco themselves having also achieved the feat in 1986): and the second African team to take first place in their group twice, following on from Nigeria in 1994-1998 and Morocco's own exploits of 1986. Morocco's 7 points (2 wins, 1 draw) was a new African record as well (ahead of Nigeria's achievements in 1994-1998)


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: The second-round match against Spain was a dour, defensive affair in which Spain had nearly all the possession but few clear chances at goal, Morocco too had only two shots on target and both were saved. In the last minute of extra time, Sarabia hit the post for Spain: the game went to penalties, and after the first three for each side, Morocco were 2-0 up, all three Spaniards having missed. Morocco's fourth penalty was scored by Hakimi, the player born in Madrid knocking Spain out of the World Cup and sending Morocco to the quarter-finals for the first time. And in the quarter-final, Morocco were to play Portugal - who, like Spain, had the majority of the possession but not many chances, Morocco prepared to sit back and try to counter-attack. A couple of chances thus fell to Youssef En-Nesyri, who missed the first two, but scored just before half-time to give Morocco the lead. Portugal, try as they might, were unable to force an equalizer. Bruno Fernandes hit the post, and both Cristiano Ronaldo's shot and Pepe's late header in injury-time flew wide of the post. Even though the injury-time dismissal of Cheddira for a second bookable offence saw them reduced to ten men, Morocco held on to their 1-0 lead and became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals. Unfortunately, Morocco's fairy tale journey reached the end as Morocco faltered 2-0 to France in the semi-finals, despite dominating possession and a nearly equal amount of shots to the world champions, and thus Morocco failed to make history as the first African team in the final of a FIFA World Cup. In the third place battle against Croatia, Morocco lost 2-1 to the European opponents and thus, matched the result of South Korea in 2002 as Morocco took fourth place finish.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Cameroon fared less well in Group G. A 1-0 defeat against Switzerland was followed by a ding-dong 3-3 draw against Serbia in which Cameroon took the lead but conceded two goals in first-half injury time, to go in trailing at the break: Serbia scored a third before Cameroon rallied and levelled the score, but neither team was able to force a winner. This unfortunately left Cameroon with the tall order of needing a victory against Brazil, who were already qualified as top of the group and made nine changes to give their second-string players a game, and still needing to hope that Switzerland failed to beat Serbia. Surprisingly, Cameroon did in fact beat Brazil with an injury-time winner from Vincent Aboubakar - who received his second yellow card of the game for his over-enthusiastic celebration and was thus red-carded: Cameroon became the first team to beat Brazil in a group-stage match since Norway in 1998, the first African team to beat Brazil in the FIFA World Cup, and also Cameroon's first-ever win since 2002, but it was to no avail since Switzerland beat Serbia 3-2 to hold on to second place and leave Cameroon in third.


title: African nations at the FIFA World Cup

text: Ghana's first two matches, in Group H, saw a lot of goals. Against Portugal, the match was goalless till halfway through the second half, when an incident in the penalty area saw video evidence used to award Portugal a penalty, from which they scored. Ghana equalized shortly afterwards, but then conceded two more quick goals to trail 3-1, pulling back a late goal in the last minute but failing to force an equalizer in injury time, Ghana eventually lost 3-2. In the second match against South Korea, Ghana surged into a 2-0 lead at half-time: South Korea pulled both goals back early in the second half, only for Ghana to score a third shortly afterwards and then withstand Korean pressure to hold on for a 3-2 win. This left them in second place in the group before their final match against Uruguay: a win or a draw would have put them through, and things looked promising when Ghana were awarded an early penalty, which was taken by André Ayew - the only remaining Ghanaian player from the 2010 quarter-final against Uruguay. However, it was saved: then Uruguay scored two goals before half-time. South Korea's injury-time victory over Portugal in the other match, putting them ahead of Uruguay on goals scored, forced both sides to go for broke in the final stages - Uruguay in search of a third to improve their goal difference, Ghana in search of getting some goals back - but neither side was able to put the ball in the net, Uruguay's victory serving only to overtake Ghana for third place and condemn the Africans to last place in the group.


title: Voiceless postalveolar affricate

text: The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , (formerly the ligature ), or, in broad transcription, . The alternative commonly used in American tradition is . It is familiar to English speakers as the "ch" sound in "chip".


title: Voiceless postalveolar affricate

text: Historically, this sound often derives from a former voiceless velar stop (as in English "church"; also in Gulf Arabic, Slavic languages, Indo-Iranian languages and Romance languages), or a voiceless dental stop by way of palatalization, especially next to a front vowel (as in English "nature"; also in Amharic, Portuguese, some accents of Egyptian, etc.).


title: Voiceless postalveolar affricate

text: Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Polish, Catalan, and Thai have a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate ; this is technically postalveolar but it is less precise to use .


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The economy of Morocco is considered a relatively liberal economy, governed by the law of supply and demand. Since 1993, Morocco has followed a policy of privatization of certain economic sectors which used to be in the hands of the government. Morocco has become a major player in African economic affairs, and is the 5th largest African economy by GDP (PPP). The World Economic Forum placed Morocco as the 1st most competitive economy in North Africa, in its African Competitiveness Report 2014–2015.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The services sector accounts for just over half of the GDP. The industry sector– consisting of mining, construction and manufacturing – is an additional quarter. The sectors that recorded the highest growth are the tourism, telecoms, and textile sectors. Morocco, however, still depends to an inordinate degree on agriculture, which accounts for around 14% of GDP but employs 40–45% of the Moroccan population. With a semi-arid climate, it is difficult to assure good rainfall and Morocco's GDP varies depending on the weather. Fiscal prudence has allowed for consolidation, with both the budget deficit and debt falling as a percentage of GDP.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The economic system of the country is characterized by a large opening towards the outside world. In the Arab world, Morocco has the second-largest non-oil GDP, behind Egypt, as of 2017.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Since the early 1980s, the Moroccan government has pursued an economic program toward accelerating economic growth with the support of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Paris Club of creditors. From 2018, the country's currency, the dirham, is fully convertible for current account transactions; reforms of the financial sector have been implemented; and state enterprises are being privatized.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The major resources of the Moroccan economy are agriculture, phosphate minerals, and tourism. Sales of fish and seafood are important as well. Industry and mining contribute about one-third of the annual GDP. Morocco is the world's third-largest producer of phosphates (after the United States and China), and the price fluctuations of phosphates on the international market greatly influence Morocco's economy. Tourism and workers' remittances have played a critical role since independence. The production of textiles and clothing is part of a growing manufacturing sector that accounted for approximately 34% of total exports in 2002, employing 40% of the industrial workforce. The government wishes to increase 3 exports from $1.27 billion in 2001 to $3.29 billion in 2010.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The high cost of imports, especially of petroleum imports, is a major problem. Morocco suffers both from structural unemployment and a large external debt.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The youth unemployment rate was 42.8% in 2017. About 80% of jobs are informal and the income gaps are very high. In 2018, Morocco ranked 121st out of 189 countries in the world on the Human Development Index (HDI), behind Algeria (82nd) and Tunisia (91st). It is the most unequal country in North Africa according to the NGO Oxfam.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Morocco is a fairly stable economy with continuous growth over the past half-century. Current GDP per capita grew 47% in the 1960s, reaching a peak growth of 274% in the 1970s. However, this proved unsustainable and growth scaled back sharply to just 8.2% in the 1980s and 8.9% in the 1990s.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: This is a chart of the trend of gross domestic product of Morocco at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Moroccan dirhams.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: For purchasing power parity comparisons, the U.S. Dollar is exchanged at over 8 Dirhams. Mean wages were $2.88 per man-hour in 2009.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Morocco instituted a series of development plans to modernize the economy and increase production during the 1960s. Net investment under the five-year plan for 1960–64 was about $1.3 billion. The plan called for a growth rate of 6.2%, but by 1964 the growth rate had only reached only 3%. The main emphasis of the plan was on the development and modernization of the agricultural sector. The five-year development plan for 1968–72 called for increased agriculture and irrigation. The development of the tourist industry also figured prominently in the plan. The objective was to attain an annual 5% growth rate in GDP; the real growth rate actually exceeded 6%.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Investment during the 1970s included industry and tourism development. The five-year plan for 1973–77 envisaged a real economic growth of 7.5% annually. Industries singled out for development included chemicals (especially phosphoric acid), phosphate production, paper products, and metal fabrication. In 1975, King Hassan II announced a 50% increase in investment targets to allow for the effects of inflation. The 1978–80 plan was one of stabilization and retrenchment, designed to improve Morocco's balance-of-payments position.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The ambitious five-year plan for 1981–85, estimated to cost more than $18 billion, aimed at achieving a growth rate of 6.5% annually. The plan's principal priority was to create some 900,000 new jobs and to train managers and workers in modern agricultural and industrial techniques. Other major goals were to increase production in agriculture and fisheries to make the country self-sufficient in food, and to develop energy, industry, and tourism to enable Morocco to lessen its dependence on foreign loans. The plan called for significant expansion of irrigated land, for increased public works projects such as hospitals and schools, and for economic decentralization and regional development through the construction of 25 new industrial parks outside the crowded Casablanca-Kénitra coastal area. Large industrial projects included phosphoric acid plants, sugar refineries, mines to exploit cobalt, coal, silver, lead, and copper deposits, and oil-shale development.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Moroccan economic policies brought macroeconomic stability to the country in the early 1990s but did not spur growth sufficient to reduce unemployment despite Moroccan Government's ongoing efforts to diversify the economy. Drought conditions depressed activity in the key agricultural sector, and contributed to an economic slowdown in 1999. Favourable rainfalls have led Morocco to a growth of 6% for 2000. Formidable long-term challenges included: servicing the external debt; preparing the economy for freer trade with the EU; and improving education and attracting foreign investment to improve living standards and job prospects for Morocco's youthful population.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Macroeconomic stability coupled with relatively slow economic growth characterized the Moroccan economy over the period 2000–2005. The government introduced a number of important economic reforms in that period. The economy, however, remained overly dependent on the agricultural sector. Morocco's primary economic challenge was to accelerate growth in order to reduce high levels of unemployment. The government continued liberalizing the telecommunications sector in 2002, as well as the rules for oil and gas exploration. This process started with the sale of a second GSM license in 1999. The government in 2003 was using revenue from privatizations to finance increased spending. Although Morocco's economy grew in the early 2000s, it was not enough to significantly reduce poverty.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Through a foreign exchange rater anchor and well-managed monetary policy, Morocco held inflation rates to industrial country levels over the past decade. Inflation in 2000 and 2001 were below 2%. Despite criticism among exporters that the dirham has become badly overvalued, the current account deficit remains modest. Foreign exchange reserves were strong, with more than $7 billion in reserves at the end of 2001. The combination of strong foreign exchange reserves and active external debt management gave Morocco the capacity to service its debt. Current external debt stands at about $16.6 billion. Africa :: Morocco — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Economic growth, however, has been erratic and relatively slow, partially as a result of an over-reliance on the agricultural sector. Agriculture production is extremely susceptible to rainfall levels and ranges from 13% to 20% of GDP. Given that 36% of Morocco's population depends directly on agriculture production, droughts have a severe knock-on effect to the economy. Two successive years of drought led to a 1% incline in real GDP in 1999 and stagnation in 2000. Better rains during the 2000 to 2001 growing season led to a 6.5% growth rate in 2001. Growth in 2006 went above 9%, this was achieved by a booming real estate market.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The government introduced a series of structural reforms in recent years. The most promising reforms have been in the liberalization of the telecommunications sector. In 2001, the process continued with the privatization of 35% of the state operator Maroc Telecom. Morocco announced plans to sell two fixed licenses in 2002. Morocco also has liberalized rules for oil and gas exploration and has granted concessions for many public services in major cities. The tender process in Morocco is becoming increasingly transparent. Many believe, however, that the process of economic reform must be accelerated in order to reduce urban unemployment below the current rates above 20%.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Morocco's sound economic management in recent years has yielded strong growth and investment grade status and it is weathering the negative impacts of the global crisis impressively well. Morocco is now addressing persistent social problems by reducing absolute poverty rates, investing in human capital through quality education, expanding access to drinking water, and linking rural areas to markets through investment in roads.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: Morocco faces challenges on human development outcomes despite progress over the past decade, in particular. Overall illiteracy rates and gender disparity in access to secondary education remain high and the country continues to suffer poor outcomes on infant and maternal mortality. It also needs to diversify its economy, become more competitive, and integrate further into the global economy if it is to reach higher growth levels.


title: Economy of Morocco

text: The government has recognized this challenge and has put in place an ambitious process of legal, policy, and institutional modernization that has far-reaching political, economic, and social dimensions. It has designed and is now implementing a comprehensive set of new sector strategies that respond to the overall national vision and that target development challenges with clear, measurable goals and indicators.