The T-shirt on sale at Doha's main market declares “Our blood is Arab”, and that is the mood buoying Morocco as it prepares to become on Saturday the first Arab nation to play a World Cup quarter-final stage, reports BSS.

Regional rivalries are now being forgotten. Morocco's red flag with a green star is becoming a best-seller seen across Qatar streets ahead of their clash with Portugal.

Organisers of the first World Cup in the Middle East have long portrayed the tournament as a chance to build up Arab fervour.

Morocco's run has inspired similar joy across the Arab world. Many leaders sent messages of congratulations to the team after they beat Spain on Tuesday.

Libyans set off fireworks in Tripoli despite their country's conflict and economic crisis.

In war-ravaged Syria, Mustafa Yassin, a dentist in the city of Idlib, honoured a Facebook pledge to treat 20 people for free if Morocco reached the quarter-finals.

Lebanon's French-language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper put the team on its front page, proclaiming: “Pride of the Arabs”.

Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan