Morocco manager Walid Regragui has admitted that his team was not good enough in their World Cup semi-final loss to France but that this should not distract from their accomplishments this year.
After knocking off two heavyweights in Spain and Portugal in the knockout rounds, the Atlas Lions became the first African country to reach the World Cup’s last four, and Regragui became the first African coach to reach the quarterfinals.
However, their hopes of reaching the final on Sunday were shattered by incumbent champions France, who defeated them 2-0 due to goals from Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani at either end of the night.
In a post-match press conference, Regragui blamed many injury interruptions for Morocco’s lackluster performance against France. Still, he urged fans to remember the road they had to reach this point in the tournament.
Morocco manager: “The most important thing is that we gave our all,” he said. “We had a few injuries; we lost [Nayef] Aguerd in the warm-up, [Romain] Saiss, [Noussair] Mazraoui at half-time…but I have nothing to say; the tiniest error is compensated for in cash.
“We didn’t start well, were too wasteful technically in the first half, and the second goal killed us, but it doesn’t negate all we accomplished before.”
