'All Deserving Players Will Be Welcome'

“All players who deserve to wear the jersey of the National Team will be welcome,” said Thursday in Sale, national football coach Vahid Halilhodzic, praising the qualities of the Atlas Lions.

At a press conference held at the Mohammed VI Football Center of Maamoura, the coach stressed the importance of developing a win culture within the national team to achieve victories even outside the team’s bases.

The Atlas Lions will travel to Nouakchott on March 26 to face the Mauritanian team (20:00 GMT+1), before facing Burundi on March 30 (20:00 GMT+1) at the Prince Moulay Abdallah stadium in Rabat.

The training of the Atlas Lions in anticipation of these two games “is crucial to continue mental preparation and work on the collective performance to improve the efficiency of the team,” said Halilhodzic, who unveiled the list of players for the next games of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers (CAN-2021).

To face the African teams, the focus must be on automatisms and on the mental, Halilhodzic underlined, expressing his confidence in the capacity of the players during the CAN and the World Cup qualifiers.

The players’ list unveiled by coach Vahid Halilhodzic includes :

–Goalkeepers :

Yassine Bounou (Seville FC), Mounir El Kajoui (Hataysport), Anas Zniti (Raja de Casablanca)

–Defenders:

Soufiane Chakla (Getafe), Ghanem Saiss (Wolverhampton), Zouhair Feddal (Sporting Lisbon), Nayef Aguerd (Stade Rennais)

–Full Backs:

Achraf Hakimi (Inter Milan), Issam Chebake (Yeni Malatyasport), Nabil Dirar (Brugge Club), Adam Massina (Watford)

— Midfielders:

Soufiane Amrabat (Fiorentina), Yahya Jabrane (Wydad of Casablanca), Aymane Berkouk (Frankfort), Oussama tannane (Vitesse Arnhem), Selim Amallah (Stadard Liège) and Adel taarabet (Benfica)

— Forwards:

Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea), Zakaria Boukhlal (Az Alkamaar), Soufiane Rahimi (Raja of Casablanca), Youssef El Arabi (Olympiakos), Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla FC), Ayoub El Kaabi (Wydad of Casablanca), Munir El Haddadi ( Sevilla FC).