Morocco head coach Walid Regragui has promised that there is more to come from his side at the World Cup after they picked up seven points to finish at the top of their group.
The Atlas Lions won Group F after going unbeaten in three games. The last of their results was a 2-1 win over Canada on Thursday which saw them become the first African side to top their World Cup group since Nigeria in 1998.
Speaking after the game, the coach admitted that his side’s achievement was not an easy feat.
“It was not easy,” said Regragui.
“When you do have this opportunity to get into history, to make history, you remember it. And, honestly, today, first half, I think it was one of the best performances that we have had in a long time.”
“We didn’t come just to play or to say ‘oh, we almost got close’. Of course, we want to play our own game,” he added.
“Our first half, the way we played, we will duplicate it. But this is not the time for this. We need to get the results and do as all European or South American teams do: Argentina, and France. We need to emulate them.
“We needed to duplicate the play of European teams with our own values, so we needed to marry and mix the two. We need to actually, in the future, have a rigorous, tactical approach with the European style with our own identity. And, if we did this, we would win.”
Meanwhile, Canada coach John Herdman, whose side lost all three of their World Cup games, has brushed off any speculation about his future after turning the focus to the Canadians’ performance in just their second World Cup finals appearance.
“I think there’s been some really big moments,” he said.
I think as a football country we can be definitely proud of our performances. The external world are talking strongly about Canada. I think we showed up in every game.
“This is the first time we’ve been here in 36 years.
“We’re playing Croatians and Belgians and we’re competing. We always said the world level is the next level, and I don’t think we were far off. Two inches from getting our first result.
“We’ve got to take a deep breath and enjoy what we’ve experienced here. We’ve asked the hard questions because that’s part of the growth as we move through to 2026, but celebrate what we achieved here.”
