Morocco’s future will be “beautiful” if they can build on the performances they produced at this World Cup, head coach Mohamed Ouahbi declared after their quarter-final exit.
The Atlas Lions were beaten 2-0 by France at Boston Stadium on Thursday, with Les Bleus going on to face Spain or Belgium in the semi-finals.
Having drawn with Brazil in the group stage before eliminating the Netherlands and Canada in the knockout stages, Morocco were tipped by some to trouble the tournament favourites.
However, they only managed five shots, one of which hit the target, with those opportunities having a total expected goals value of 0.14. France, by contrast, accumulated 22 shots worth 3.04 xG.
In the first half, France had 12 shots more than Morocco (13 to one), the second-biggest difference in the first period of any World Cup knockout match on record (since 1966), after Brazil (17 shots) versus Sweden (one) in the 1994 semi-finals.
Morocco were also eliminated by France in 2022 under Walid Regragui, having reached the semi-finals on that occasion.
And Ouahbi was proud of the way his side competed, noting they may have been unfortunate that Adrien Rabiot was not penalised for handball in the build-up to Kylian Mbappe’s opening goal.
“We have to admit that we played against a very good team. We suffered a lot in the first half and we had Bounou’s save from the penalty,” Ouahbi told beIN Sports.
“In the second half, we defended better and above all, with the ball, we were more calm. We were much better. In the first half, it seemed like the players were catching their breath.
“The goal came from an action where some referees would stop because they saw a hand. There is a handball, I don’t know if it should have been called or not, I don’t know. Then there’s an individual action by Mbappe, who scores.”
In their first five World Cups, Morocco suffered four group-stage exits (in 1970, 1994, 1998 and 2018) and one round-of-16 elimination (in 1986). They then finished fourth in 2022, losing to France in the semi-finals, before reaching the last eight this time around.
And Ouabhi, who led Morocco’s under-20s to World Cup glory in 2025, believes the future is bright for his team.
“It was hard in the end, but I think we have to keep believing. We also have to continue to build on this base, to make sure that when there are injuries, or fewer fresh players, that we must have a larger pool,” he added.
“We will continue, we will not stop here. We are very disappointed. We wanted more but we have to accept it.
“If we continue like this, the future will be beautiful. That doesn’t mean we didn’t want to win today, though.
“We did everything to try to win, we came up against a good team. Of course, we remain confident and we are not going to let ourselves feel too defeated.”
