Morocco’s future will be “beautiful” if it can take advantage of the performances it made in this World Cup, declared coach Mohamed Ouahbi after its elimination in the quarterfinals.
The Atlas Lions were defeated by France 2-0 at Boston Stadium on Thursday, and Les Bleus faced either Spain or Belgium in the semi-finals.
After drawing with Brazil in the group stage before eliminating the Netherlands and Canada in the round of 16, some suggested Morocco would put the tournament favorites in danger.
However, they only managed five shots, one of which was on target, and those chances had a total expected goals value of 0.14. France, on the other hand, accumulated 22 shots worth 3.04 xG.
In the first half, France took 12 more shots than Morocco (13 to one), the second largest difference recorded in the first period of any World Cup qualifying match (since 1966), after Brazil (17 shots) against Sweden (one) in the 1994 semi-finals.
Morocco was also eliminated by France in 2022 with Walid Regragui, having reached the semifinals on that occasion.
And Ouahbi was proud of the way his team competed, pointing out that perhaps they were unlucky that Adrien Rabiot was not penalized for a handball in the build-up to Kylian Mbappe’s first goal.
“We have to admit that we played against a very good team. We suffered a lot in the first half and Bounou saved the penalty,” Ouahbi told beIN Sports.
“In the second half we defended better and, above all, with the ball we were calmer. We were much better. In the first half it seemed that the players were catching their breath.
“The goal arose from an action in which some referees stopped because they saw a handball. There is a handball, I don’t know if it should have been sanctioned or not, I don’t know. Then there is an individual action by Mbappé, who scores.”
In its first five World Cups, Morocco suffered four eliminations in the group stage (in 1970, 1994, 1998 and 2018) and one elimination in the round of 16 (in 1986). They then finished fourth in 2022, losing to France in the semi-finals, before reaching the quarter-finals this time.
And Ouabhi, who led Morocco’s under-20 team to glory at the 2025 World Cup, believes the future is bright for his team.
“In the end it was difficult, but I think we have to keep believing. We also have to keep building on this foundation, to make sure that when there are injuries or fewer new players, we have a bigger group,” he added.
“We will continue, we will not stop here. We are very disappointed. We wanted more but we have to accept it.
“If we continue like this, the future will be beautiful. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t want to win today.
“We did everything we could to try to win, we faced a good team. Of course, we are confident and we are not going to allow ourselves to feel too defeated.”
