The Moroccan national team coach, Walid Regragui, admitted that playing the third-place match for the Qatar 2022 World Cup once morest Croatia, on Saturday, is “the worst match we can play” because the ambition was to be in the final.
Morocco was hoping to crown its historic career in the World Cup in Qatar by reaching the final, but the adventure ended at the round of four, losing to France, the defending champion, 0-2.
As always, coaches find it difficult to motivate their players to play a game that is considered a “consolation prize”, but Rekragui will try to “beautify” the third place to motivate his players.
“I think it is the worst match we can play. But we are still excited to play it, despite the feeling of disappointment,” Rekragui said, on the eve of the scheduled meeting at Khalifa Stadium, in a replay of the group stage match that ended in a goalless draw once morest Luka Modric and his companions.
He continued, “Of course, we would have preferred to be in the final, but there is the third place that we have to play for. We want to finish (the championship) on the podium.”
And he admitted, “It will be difficult because of fatigue, and there is also the mental barrier that we must overcome. We know that Croatia also wants to finish (the tournament) third.”
When asked if there was any third-place match in the history of the World Cup stuck in his mind, Regragui replied, “Honestly, this ranking meeting bothers me a bit. It is always complicated, whether it is for us or Croatia, following the disappointment of losing the semi-finals, you have to following Two days to play a match (…) It’s a foolish match if we were third or fourth (…) I would have said the same thing regarding second place if we were in the final because we want to be the winners.”
Although they would have certainly preferred to play the final, as is the case of the Croats, the Moroccan players will not “need motivation” to fight in the Saturday meeting, according to what Regragui said, “because we are in the World Cup and we represent Morocco. Every match is important, even the friendly for our fans.”
Sayes absence
In a related context, the defender and captain of the Moroccan national team, Romain Sayes, will miss Saturday’s match, according to Regragui.
And following having to leave the semi-final match once morest France in the 21st minute due to an injury he sustained in his left thigh during the 1-0 victory over Portugal in the quarter-finals, Sais will not be able to play the match for third place.
After the loss once morest France, Rakraki indicated that he would make adjustments to his squad for the third-place match in order to give some players the opportunity to participate, but he made it clear on Friday that he would not make wholesale adjustments due to the danger that this carries in facing a team like Croatia.