Moroccan national football coach Walid Rekragui said on Friday evening that the “Atlas Lions” hope to “write history” by defeating Brazil for the first time, when they meet Saturday in Tangiers in an international friendly match, the first after the wonderful epic of the Atlas Lions in the World Cup in Qatar.
“We will play with humility and we will try to cause them as many problems as possible and create a surprise, and why not enter into the history of Moroccan football,” Regragui said in a press conference on the eve of the match.
The following are the highlights of Regragui’s statements before the Brazil match:
- It would be great on our land, with our fans, and after what we did in the World Cup (in Qatar), to win this match,” noting that Morocco is “not a candidate” to win.
- Regragui explained that tactically he would maintain “our identity while taking more risks in building attacks because it is a friendly match and keeping in mind that the goal is to win”.
- The Moroccan coach is counting on the core of his squad, which did well in Qatar and finished the World Cup in fourth place, especially Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech, French Marseille midfielder Ezzedine Onahi, Bayern Munich defender Nosair Mazraoui and Fiorentina midfielder Sofiane Amrabat.
- There is doubt about the participation of French Paris Saint-Germain defender Ashraf Hakimi, due to an injury he suffered in the last two weeks.
- About Hakimi’s chances of participation, Regragui said: “Honestly, his chances until this evening are 50/50. We will go through the training session and see how he feels. The sure thing is that we will not take any risks, we do not want him to be injured.”
- Regragui called up some new players to the Moroccan squad for the first time, including Benjamin Bouchouari (Saint-Etienne, France), Ayoub Amralaoui (Nice, France) and Chadi Riyad (Barcelona, Spain).
The Atlas Lions will play a second international friendly match next Tuesday against Peru at the “Metropolitano” stadium of Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital.
It is worth noting that the Atlas Lions lost twice to the Selecao in 1997 during a friendly match, and a year later in the group stage of the World Cup in France.