Morocco Coach Regragui Aims to Shift African World Cup Mentality Against Belgium

On the eve of the match against Belgium for the 2nd day of the World Cup group stage, Walid Regragui lifts a corner of the veil on the level of preparation. "As a staff, we want to change African mentalities a bit. Before, as Africans, we played spectacular matches at the World Cup, but we were eliminated in the first match. Today, I think Tunisia, us and even Senegal yesterday, have proven that you can lose the first match but stay in the race," analyzes the Moroccan coach.

"The goal is to qualify for the second round... We want to qualify, no matter how. The most important thing is to make our country proud. Already, we have done better than in 2018 by snatching a point. We will try to take as many points as possible to qualify. [...] Tomorrow, we will be solid, we will try to pose problems and make Africa proud, since we represent it... We have to prove that we are capable of qualifying. It goes through a European state of mind. If we get through the group stage, I think we will be very dangerous," Regragui specified.

For the Moroccan coach, the Atlas Lions do not necessarily need a win tomorrow. "Are we obliged to win? That’s not true. We can draw and Croatia draws or Croatia loses. The most important thing is to take the points and not get eliminated... We have to be consistent and stick to our principles of play. We have to get out of this group of death," he explained, reiterating his full confidence in the replacements for Noussair Mazraoui, Achraf Hakimi and captain Romain Saïss, who "have little pains, but we have to overcome them, it’s the World Cup."

And he concluded: "Today, the favorite is Belgium. They have a fantastic coach, world-class players, they have experience... we have to accept it. But we want to create the surprise. It will be a very difficult match for both teams... We must have more technical control compared to the first match. Tactically, we were very strong, but we sinned on intensity, we lost a lot of balls in midfield. We will have more qualities with the matches because our players lacking playing time will be fresher, with time."