Speaking to reporters at his pre-game press conference, Morocco coach Walid Regragui suggested his team will need to repeat their second-half display against Canada, a 2-1 win, to beat Spain in their last 16 tie. Meanwhile, Regragui explained that his team are seeing the game as their “fourth final” of the competition, saying:
“It’s a very difficult game. Spain are one of the best teams in the world, I think they’re one of the favourites for the trophy… We are well prepared, we’ve had one more day of recovery and we will try to create a surprise… I told the players, as soon as we enter this competition, we will only be playing finals. This will be our fourth final, we’ll make sure to try and win it as we did before with our values, our principles and our qualities too… Mentally, we know that these are very high level matches and that we have to stay focused. I loved the second half against Canada (2-1), it was the one that allowed us to better gauge the group, one when we were in difficulty… Now we must show we’re able to achieve the same performance, mentally and athletically, for 90 minutes. This is what will await us against the Spaniards. We work towards that and we are ready to produce the same kind of performance.”
GWFN
