Morocco Tops Group C Despite Draw with Gabon in AFCON 2022

For the last match of the group stage of Group C in the Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco, already qualified for the round of 16, conceded a draw against Gabon (2-2). Both teams continue in the tournament and Morocco finish top of the group.

In the post-match press conference, Halilhodzic gave his reading of the match. For him, the unconvincing performance offered by the Moroccans is his responsibility. "We had to take risks to rotate the squad," he said, adding that the essentials have been done.

When questioned about the day’s performance, the coach said: "It’s true that we had difficulties today... I knew Gabon would be difficult to negotiate and that they would create problems for us with their counterattacks, especially on the left flank. However, we showed character by coming back twice. I am satisfied with the contribution of the players, because there was a lot of will, commitment and generosity. On these aspects, I have nothing to say. We were missing that last ingredient, that last pass, the last gesture that allows the attack to come to fruition..."

The Franco-Bosnian coach also justified this result by the fact that he wanted to rotate his squad. "Today, if we think that Morocco played badly, it’s my fault, because these are my choices. Physical freshness is very important and we had to give other players a chance. This is actually the positive point of the evening: we now have several feedbacks, we can now evaluate the performances of a larger number of players. This will certainly be useful in the next matches before making the choices. If we have to criticize the performance of my team today, I am responsible. We can say that Vahid has failed his bet, but I have no regrets. It was a risk to take," he said.