After a 2-0 win over Belgium in Group F, just their third ever World Cup win, Morocco are on the verge of making the tournament’s last 16 for only the second time in their history.
Coach Walid Regragui was only appointed in August after previous coach Vahid Halilhodžić was removed amid a spikey relationship with key players such as Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech, who was left out of January’s AFCON squad by Halilhodžić.
As a result, Regragui has had just five games in charge of Morocco but in that time his team are both undefeated and yet to conceded a goal. The win over Belgium followed an impressive performance in their opening World Cup game with 2018 runners-up Croatia, which ended 0-0 despite the Atlas Lions being arguably the better side.
The September international break saw Regragui’s debut as Morocco coach as his side beat Chile 2-0 and drew 0-0 with Paraguay before a World Cup warm up game with Georgia 10 days ago which produced a 3-0 win.
With four points, Morocco are now favourites to move into the last 16 from Group F where they would play a team from Group E, which features Spain, Germany, Costa Rica and Japan. Their final group game will be with Canada on Thursday.
GWFN
