Walid Regragui maintains hopes for bronze despite semi-finals disqualification

Morocco’s National Team Head Coach Walid Regragui held a press conference Friday morning ahead of the World Cup ranking match against Croatia.

Regragui considers that facing Croatia in the World Cup standings match would not be easy, as Morocco desires to grab a third place in the tournament.

Regragui revealed in the pre-match press conference that, the team gave everything to overcome the harsh elimination from the semi-finals, as it now focuses on this match against an opponent he had previously faced, which will be different from prior face-offs in the tournament.

“It is not a group match, it will be more difficult because it is a match to determine positions and not to gain points, so it will be an open match between the two squads,” Walid Regragui said.

Adding that the Atlas Lions “are approaching the ambition of winning a World Cup title for African teams in the future.”

In terms of the Federation’s complaint regarding the refereeing of the game against France, the coach explained: “It was the right gesture, although it will not change the result, but at least to do justice to Boufal and reverse the yellow card he received. It is true that there was a penalty, but the result will not change now.”

The spokesperson continued: “Playing the rankings for me is frustrating. It is difficult to lose the semi-finals and play a ranking match two days later.. I wanted to play the final and win the title because history only remembers winners.”

Regarding his decision to switch the team layout for the semi-finals game, he said that he does not regret the choices against France.

“Playing with a 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 plan is not the problem, we received an early goal and another from a mistake, which is something that can happen in football.”

Regragui added: “We felt that we were close to reaching the final, but the reality is that we were eliminated, which was difficult for me. In order to maintain positivity within the group, we are playing for third place, which is a good thing, and no one expected it.”

Noting that the team played six matches and the seventh is awaiting on Saturday, and it’s something that has never been achieved in the team’s history, nor in Africa’s.

Morocco will play against Croatia on Saturday 4:00 pm Moroccan time, in a ranking match that could see the Atlas lions bring home an unprecedented bronze medal for the continent, the Arab, muslims worlds and the Kingdom.