{"id":23609,"date":"2022-12-14T10:33:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T10:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal"},"modified":"2022-12-14T11:04:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T11:04:33","slug":"morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal","title":{"rendered":"Morocco coach hopes to \u2018upset\u2019 France in World Cup semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui said on Tuesday that reaching the World Cup semifinal was not enough for his history-making side and that he hoped to cause an \u201cupset\u201d in their match against reigning champions France on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time that an Arab and African nation has made it to the semifinal of football\u2019s biggest event in the 92-year history of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are playing the world champions with many world-class players and a very good coach,\u201d the former national team player told reporters, adding that he wanted to \u201cget rid of the mentality\u201d of remaining satisfied with just reaching a certain level in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will show great desire and try to pull off an upset.<\/p>\n<p>Why not reach the final of the World Cup? We can dream, it doesn\u2019t cost you anything to have dreams,\u201d he added, accompanied by midfielder Ilias Chair.<\/p>\n<p>The coach, who once played for French team Toulouse, said the team was still \u201chungry\u201d for more success despite not being \u201cfavourites\u201d to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if it will be enough .<br \/>\n. I know we are not favourites but we are confident,\u201d Regragui added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to fight to move on, for the African nations, for the Arab world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d Morocco defeated top European teams Belgium, Spain and Portugal en route to the semifinal, having conceded only once, and that via an own goal.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to their stunning success in Qatar, the first World Cup held in a Middle Eastern country, the team had reached the knockout stages only once in 1986, when it was eliminated in the round of 16 by Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Spirit\u2019, \u2018fans\u2019 key The 47-year-old said having \u201cteam spirit\u201d was going to be key to preparing for the match tactically and mentally on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone wants to give their best in every game. We play a collective game with a good spirit,\u201d Regragui said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, that is the most important thing in football.<br \/>\nThe Morocco manager also said the country\u2019s supporters, who have been among the most vocal and visible at the World Cup, will be \u201cvery important\u201d for his side\u2019s chance of success on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the best fans in the world .<br \/>\n. maybe [together] with the Argentinian and Brazilian fans, they are crazy guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are people who travel from anywhere in the world to support their country.<br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to play like being at home and that\u2019s the most important thing in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d Chair said it was a \u201cgreat honour\u201d to play in front of the Moroccan fans and he and his teammates wanted to make them \u201cproud\u201d. Several key Atlas Lions players, including defender Roman Saisse, are injured and may miss the clash against Les Blues.<\/p>\n<p>However, their French-born manager said the team had an \u201cexcellent medical staff\u201d that was providing him with \u201cgood news every day\u201d. \u201cWe will have to wait until the last minute.<\/p>\n<p>No one is out but no one is definitely in either,\u201d he added. The semifinal will be played at Al-Bayt Stadium in Al Khor at 10pm local time (19:00 GMT).<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\">Mauritius<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Mauritius. Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui said on Tuesday that reaching the World Cup semifinal was not enough for his history-making side and that he hoped to cause an \u201cupset\u201d in their match against reigning champions France on Wednesday. This is the first time that an Arab and African nation has made it to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,245,241,514],"class_list":["post-23609","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-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Morocco coach hopes to \u2018upset\u2019 France in World Cup semifinal - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui said on Tuesday that reaching the World Cup semifinal was not enough for his history-maki ...\" \/>\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-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morocco coach hopes to \u2018upset\u2019 France in World Cup semifinal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui said on Tuesday that reaching the World Cup semifinal was not enough for his history-maki ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\" \/>\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=\"2022-12-14T10:33:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T11:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671001566.40.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\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=\"3 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-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Morocco coach hopes to \u2018upset\u2019 France in World Cup semifinal\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-14T10:33:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-14T11:04:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671001566.40.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"World Cup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/morocco-coach-hopes-to-upset-france-in-world-cup-semifinal\",\"name\":\"Morocco coach hopes to \u2018upset\u2019 France in World Cup semifinal - 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