Morocco Coach Halilhodzic Defends World Cup Prep Amid Mixed Results

A few months before the start of the competition, the Atlas Lions have played three matches. The first, a friendly, lost against the United States, and the other two, counting towards the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, won against South Africa and Liberia.

Speaking after these matches, the coach of the Atlas Lions returned to the criticism of some supporters, highlighting the difficulties encountered during this training camp which comes just at the end of the European championships. "This training camp was the most complicated. We had so many problems: illnesses and especially for the first time so many injuries. 16 injured players and even today a player who was operated on urgently. It’s the most difficult training camp I’ve experienced with the Moroccan team," he said.

Regarding the defeat against the United States, the Franco-Bosnian said "for me, it served me well to show the guys that if we’re not ready to play a match at this level, we take a good slap. For me, it was very positive."

"I don’t know what the public expects. We are not the favorites of the group which is probably the toughest of this tournament. We are playing against the world vice-champions, the team that finished third and the best team in North America. It will be a World Cup with a lot of tests for us, to see if we are capable of pulling off an exploit against a very high-level team," he concluded.