Morocco’s Atlas Lions Apologize After Shock Africa Cup of Nations Exit

"The elimination is bitter for us and for the Moroccan people, whose ambition we have not realized. We created a few opportunities that we wasted and we paid the price dearly by leaving the competition. The absence of Ziyech and Boufal made our task difficult, and we apologize to the Moroccan people for not doing our job. We hope that in the future, in the edition that we will host in Morocco, we will win the title," said Benmahmoud after the match. And he added: "Honestly, even the refereeing was not up to par and irritated the players. We all take responsibility and reiterate our apologies to the Moroccan people."

In the same vein, captain Romain Saïss expressed his sorrow at this early elimination of the Moroccan team. "We have to progress, and today we obviously feel great disappointment and have made our people sad. I want to apologize to them, but we gave everything and we will come back stronger, God willing," said the Atlas Lion, who also criticized the refereeing. "[...] Some refereeing decisions can change the course of the match. I don’t understand how our goal was disallowed, there was no offside, and the referee raised the flag. Sometimes the game continues, and other times the referee stops the game and signals a foul, it’s incredible," he detailed.

Saïss also acknowledged the lack of efficiency of the Moroccan team in this round of 16 match. "To win a match, you have to score goals... They scored a goal on one attempt, while we failed to put the ball in the net," he said. The Atlas Lions were eliminated from the continental tournament by the Bafana Bafana, who will face the Cape Verde team in the quarterfinals.