Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi Confident Ahead of Second World Cup Appearance

"Participating in the World Cup is the dream of every player, but not everyone has the chance to play their matches. I am one of the lucky ones. In fact, I am happy to represent my country for the second time at the World Cup," said the Moroccan right-back in an interview with the Qatari channel Al Jazeera.

Achraf Hakimi promised that his teammates and he will do better than in Russia. "I think we (the players) are well prepared to accomplish great achievements in the coming period, in order to make the Moroccan people proud and happy with us, he stressed. Our ambition is to do better than in Russia and to be the surprise team". In Russia, Morocco had left the competition after holding Spain (2-2) and leading twice in the score in Kaliningrad in the third and final group stage match (group B) of the World Cup.

Ranked in group F, Morocco will start its sixth participation in the final phase of the 2022 World Cup by challenging Croatia (finalist of the last edition), before crossing swords with Belgium (eliminated by the Blues in the semi-finals of the previous edition), and finally Canada (back 36 years after their only participation in 1986) in the 3rd round.