Walid Regragui’s dream of his Morocco workforce turning into Africa’s first World Cup semi-finalists got here true on Saturday however he stated they will go even additional within the match and proceed making historical past as they search to encourage future generations.
Morocco grew to become the primary African and Arab nation to achieve the final 4 with a shocking 1-0 upset of Portugal, the newest scalp of their reputation-shredding run in Qatar that has damaged new floor for the game exterior Europe and South America.
Youssef En-Nesyri’s towering first-half header earned them the victory which sparked euphoric scenes on the Al Thumama Stadium and left them one sport away from the World Cup last.
“What’s essential for future generations is we’ve proven that it’s doable for an African workforce to get to the semi-finals of the World Cup. And even the ultimate, why not?” an ecstatic Regragui advised reporters.
“In a single press convention three or 4 matches in the past, I used to be requested we may win the World Cup. And I stated, ‘Why not?’ We are able to dream. Why shouldn’t we dream? If you happen to don’t dream, you don’t get anyplace. It doesn’t price you something.”
“European nations are used to profitable the World Cup, so we’re going to need to attempt to get in there, and transcend ourselves.”
Having already made a mockery of their unfancied standing after topping a tricky Group F forward of Croatia and Belgium, Morocco toppled Spain on penalties earlier than taking down Portugal to proceed their extraordinary run.
They’ll as soon as once more be up in opposition to European giants of their bid to rewrite historical past, taking up France or England, who play later, on Wednesday for a spot within the last.
“The message I’m attempting to get to the gamers is to be assured, go on the market and provides every little thing, and don’t have any regrets. And so they believed me,” Regragui stated.
“In fact it’s nice to come back to the World Cup, to play these three group stage video games. We’ve got elite gamers, and we now have a workforce that may win video games on the World Cup. Generally you exaggerate issues, however they really believed it and so they’ve now proven that they’re able to acting at this stage.”
Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou added: “As our coach stated, we’re right here to vary the mentality. This sense of inferiority, we have to eliminate it… The technology coming after us will now know that Moroccan gamers can create miracles.”