No consolation for Morocco after world cup dream crumbled

The Atlas Lions had a great run in the FIFA world cup Qatar 2022, and they deserve huge credit for it, yet they couldn’t transform their dream into reality despite creating history and new records. With star players like Achraf Hakimi and Hakim Ziyech, their tremendous performance in the group stages made them favourites to win at least a bronze medal if not the winner’s trophy. A couple of other players also came in the spotlight like Azzedine Ounahi and Sofyan Amrabat who made a crucial tackle on the famous Kylian Mbappe in the semi-final against France. Morocco’s goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou who is known as Bono, also came out as a hero in the world cup.

All the support Morocco drew

Morocco became the first African nation and the second Muslim nation, after Turkey, to play in a FIFA world cup semi-final. They developed a strong fanbase who were rooting for them which included the Muslim countries and the nearly the whole African continent. They even got some fans to support them against their countries’ teams just by playing good football against the best teams. They defeated Belgium, The Red Devils in the group stage, and Peter Drury’s poetic commentary on their win gave goosebumps to the football world.

Head coach and playing strategy

Morocco’s head coach Walid Regragui, who joined them just three months before the big tournament knew exactly what he was doing. Despite facing derogatory remarks and being called an ‘avocado head’ due to his bald appearance, he did wonders for his team far beyond any of his critics would have ever imagined. He made his team finish the group stages on top of the table while having Belgium and Croatia in the group, that also without conceding a goal apart from an own goal scored.

Regragui owns his solid defensive style of play and called it a clever tactic in an interview once, because a strong defence wins you big games. They had a low percentage of ball possession in majority of their games but to follow Regragui’s tactics, they only looked for chances to execute counter attacks instead of forcing multiple attacks and it turned out quite great for them.

World cup dream shattered

In the semi-final against Les Bleus, we saw a change in the tactics and playing style by the Atlas Lions keeping more ball possession and searching for attacking chances. However, Theo Hernandez of the defending champions France gave them an early lead by scoring an exceptional volley which was the first of the four goals Morocco conceded in tournament. The game ended 2-0 with France proceeding through to the final once again, where they will face The Magic Man, Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

They faced the runner ups of the last world cup, Croatia in the consolation prize decider, and lost 2-1 to them, failing to win the bronze medal.

Morocco had a great support behind them from all over the world rooting for their win, but they had already made enough history and it wasn’t written in their books to win the FIFA world cup. A sad ending to an intense effort and a great run.