Morocco ‘can still do better’ after Belgium upset
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Fifa World Cup
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Morocco coach Walid Regragui says his side can improve further after shocking Belgium in Group F at the World Cup in Qatar.
Goals from Romain Saiss and Zakaria Aboukhlal gave the Atlas Lions a 2-0 win over a side ranked second in the world – 20 places above Morocco.
The result means the North Africans need just a point from their final group match against Canada on Thursday (15:00 GMT) to be assured of a place in the last 16 for the first time since 1986.
“We can still do better, we can still improve – the more we play together, the better we will get – we are a difficult team to beat,” said Regragui, who only took charge in August.
“We haven’t qualified yet and I am not happy with four points – I want more than that. It’s going to be even tougher when we get to the knockout stage, but we have matched two of the best teams in the world.”
Morocco had begun their campaign with a 0-0 draw against 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia, but impressed against Belgium despite having 33% possession.
“With these fans, players and this spirit, we can do anything,” Regragui added.
“The competition is not over. We have to recover quickly for the game against Canada. Hopefully we can get a good result for the qualification.”
On Sunday. winger Hakim Ziyech proved a true creative outlet for the Atlas Lions and set up the second goal in second-half stoppage time.
The 29-year-old Chelsea winger only ended his international exile in September following the dismissal of former coach Vahid Halilhodzic, with whom he had fallen out.
Partly brought in to bring back some of the names the Croat had fallen out with, Regragui hailed the importance of Ziyech, who has struggled for game time with his club side this season.
“This guy is incredible – his spirit – when he comes in the national team and you give him love and confidence, he can die for you,” Regragui said.
“Hakim is a key player, when you have him in the team, it’s a different team. He only needs a coach to give him confidence.”
Ziyech was a modest recipient of the man of the match award.
“I don’t think I deserve it to be honest,” he said.
“It’s something we did together, It’s for everybody [in the team] and everybody who was behind us. It’s hard to pick one [player] because we did it all together.”
Tensions spill over
On Sunday evening, celebrations by the Moroccan communities in both Belgium and the Netherlands spilled over into violence.
Riot police were deployed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague after stones, glasses and fireworks were thrown, roads were blocked and cars were set alight.
The BBC’s Anna Holligan reported that hundreds of people were involved but there were just a handful of arrests, with two police officers injured.
“Rioters, shame on you,” tweeted the Netherlands’s justice minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius.
There were similar scenes in Brussels, with some Moroccan fans pictured celebrating the win on the roof of a burnt-out car.
This is not the first time such incidents have happened, with more than 20 police officers injured in Brussels five years ago after the celebrations that followed Morocco’s qualification for Russia 2018 turned violent.
Meanwhile, massive celebrations took place in the majority of Moroccan cities. In Casablanca, fans took to the streets wearing the national team’s shirts and waving the country’s flag to spend a sleepless night enjoying the result.
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