{"id":23539,"date":"2022-12-13T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup"},"modified":"2022-12-13T13:38:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:38:14","slug":"morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup","title":{"rendered":"Morocco coach says his team is the \u2018Rocky of this World Cup\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui has called the Atlas Lions the \u201cRocky of this World Cup\u201d ahead of the team\u2019s highly anticipated semifinal clash with reigning champions France.<\/p>\n

Regragui compared the Moroccan team\u2019s fairytale run in Qatar to that of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa in the iconic Hollywood film Rocky \u2013 played by US actor Sylvester Stallone \u2013 which tells the story of a small-time fighter who gets an unexpected shot at the world boxing heavyweight championship and wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made our people and our continent so happy and proud,\u201d an energised Regragui said at a news conference after the team\u2019s 1-0 victory over Portugal on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch Rocky, you want to support Rocky Balboa and I think we are the Rocky of this World Cup. I think now the world is with Morocco. \u201d<\/p>\n

Morocco will stride into Wednesday\u2019s game with reigning champions France after upsetting Belgium, Spain and Portugal to become the first African and Arab team to make it to the World Cup\u2019s semifinal round.<\/p>\n

And like Rocky\u2019s final showdown with antagonist Apollo Creed, a scrappy Morocco is looking to topple a heavyweight of world football. A win over France, led by the ever-dangerous Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroux, would land the Atlas Lions in their first-ever World Cup final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can dream, why shouldn\u2019t we dream about winning the World Cup?\u201d asked Regragui, who took over as the team\u2019s coach only in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t cost you anything to have dreams. European countries have been used to winning the World Cup. \u201d France roar into Wednesday\u2019s match having vanquished England in a 2-1 quarterfinal thriller on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, officials announced French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Doha for the match against Morocco. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy<\/p>\n

\u201cThe details of the trip remain to be settled, of course, but he had made this commitment,\u201d French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said on Franceinfo radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s office stated last month that he would travel to the Qatar 2022 World Cup if Les Bleus progressed in the semifinal round. \u201cCongratulations to [Les] Bleus!\u201d Macron wrote on Twitter early on Sunday following the team\u2019s win over England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole country is behind you: We will go to the end together. To the Moroccans: We salute your historic victory. See you in the semi-finals!\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui has called the Atlas Lions the \u201cRocky of this World Cup\u201d ahead of the team\u2019s highly anticipated semifinal clash with reigning champions France. Regragui compared the Moroccan team\u2019s fairytale run in Qatar to that of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa in the iconic Hollywood film Rocky \u2013 played by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,245,241,239],"class_list":["post-23539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-morocco"],"yoast_head":"\nMorocco coach says his team is the \u2018Rocky of this World Cup\u2019 - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui has called the Atlas Lions the \u201cRocky of this World Cup\u201d ahead of the team\u2019s highly antic ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morocco coach says his team is the \u2018Rocky of this World Cup\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui has called the Atlas Lions the \u201cRocky of this World Cup\u201d ahead of the team\u2019s highly antic ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-13T12:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-13T13:38:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670924973.04.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Morocco coach says his team is the \u2018Rocky of this World Cup\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-13T12:00:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-13T13:38:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\"},\"wordCount\":427,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670924973.04.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"Morocco\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-says-his-team-is-the-rocky-of-this-world-cup\",\"name\":\"Morocco coach says his team is the \u2018Rocky of this World Cup\u2019 - 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