Defending champ France big test for Morocco ‘dream’
Morocco’s improbable, history-making run at the World Cup is about to get its ultimate test.
Africa’s first World Cup semifinalist is playing defending champion France and striker Kylian Mbappé, the leader of a new wave of soccer superstars coming out of an era dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Wednesday’s match has cultural and political connotations — Morocco was under French rule from 1912-56 — and the outcome is far from the foregone conclusion many would presume by looking at the names of the players and the rankings of the teams.
Morocco has exceeded all expectations in Qatar by beating second-ranked Belgium in the group stage and then eliminating European powerhouses Spain and Portugal in the knockout phase to reach the semifinals.
No African or Arab nation has ever gotten this far.
It is one of the biggest stories in the World Cup’s 92-year history and Morocco is not done yet.
“I was asked if we can
win the World Cup and I said, ‘Why not? We can dream, it doesn’t cost you anything to have dreams,’ ” said Walid Regragui, Morocco’s French-born coach. “European countries are used to winning the World Cup and we have played top sides, we have not had an easy run. Anyone playing us is going to be afraid of us now.”
Even France?
The defending champions have just passed their own big test by coming
through a tough quarterfinal match against England, on a rare occasion when Mbappé was kept quiet.
No player has scored more than his five goals in Qatar and it won’t be easy for Mbappé to add to that tally against Morocco, which has yet to concede a goal to an opposition player at this World Cup — or indeed in its nine games since Regragui was hired in August. The only goal allowed was an own-goal by defender Nayef
Aguerd against Canada in the group stage.
Regragui said defender Achraf Hakimi is looking forward to a “nice duel” with Mbappé, his teammate at Paris Saint-Germain, but added that France doesn’t just depend on its star player.
“We’ll have to block Kylian, but not just him,” Regragui said. “Hakimi is super motivated to beat his friend.”
The key to winning the game, the coach said, will be Morocco’s “team spirit” and the support of the crowd at Al Bayt Stadium, where French President Emmanuel Macron is set to be in attendance along with tens of thousands of green-and-red-clad Morocco fans. It will feel like a home game for Morocco’s players, which might level things up even more.
“We have the best fans in the world along with Argentines and Brazilians. They’re people who come from anywhere in the world to support their country,” Regragui said. “We’re going to play like being at home and that’s the most important thing in the world.”
France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said the team expects “a hostile environment in the stadium.”
“It’s going to make a lot of noise, a raucous atmosphere. It’s going to be a tough time to concentrate in that sense, but during the match and at halftime, we’re going to have to remain focused,” Lloris said.
NEYMAR NOT GUILTY IN FRAUD CASE
Neymar was acquitted Tuesday by a Spanish court of fraud and corruption charges stemming from his 2013 transfer to Barcelona from Santos, a club in his native Brazil.
Neymar’s parents and the former presidents of Barcelona (Josep Maria Bartomeu) and Santos (Sandro Rosell) also were found not guilty after going on trial in October. The victory for Neymar comes days after his Brazilian national team was eliminated by Croatia in the World Cup quarterfinals.
DIS, a company that owns a chain of supermarkets in Brazil, had accused the defendants of intentionally hiding the cost of Neymar’s transfer to avoid paying DIS what it was due as a partial holder of his player rights.
The verdict was not unexpected, given that Spanish state prosecutors decided to drop charges during the trial in October, leaving DIS alone to fight on.