The Moroccan national team closes the group stage... and analysts warn of mistakes.
The Moroccan national team's advancement to the round of 32 in the World Cup has sparked the fans' appetite to replicate the "Qatar achievement" and go far in the competition for the title; however, analysts warn of tactical mistakes.
After the end of the match against Haiti, Mohamed Wahbi said: "We will move to Mexico, as I mentioned earlier... We aimed to go to Houston; however, we will play in Monterrey, but our ambition and goal remain the same."
The captain of the "Atlas Lions" added: "The group is happy with this victory; they fought for it, and we will continue to progress with confidence, work, and humility... No matter who the next opponent is, we are waiting for them and ready to compete."
Abdel Salam Sekabi, an international Moroccan coach, stated that "the Moroccan national team started its match against Haiti very poorly from a technical standpoint, as we conceded a very early goal due to a mistake by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou; this gave the opponent a lot of confidence in the first half of the World Cup match."
Sekabi added, in a statement to Hespress, that coach Mohamed Wahbi began the first half with a desire to integrate new players into the system and the competitive atmosphere to rely on them in the future; however, the left side was very weak and showed clear defensive problems, especially in the absence of the necessary defensive support from Bilal El Khannous to his teammate in that flank.
According to the speaker, the team suffered from a significant slowness in defensive recovery, leaving vast spaces between the lines that the Haitian team exploited to reach Bounou's goal multiple times and score two goals. Despite controlling the game and creating chances, efficiency was lacking in front of the goal.
The same coach added: "We only won the match in the last minutes, losing the top spot in the group on goal difference to Brazil," pointing out that "due to this second place, we chose the harder path as we will move to play in Mexico; this will drain the time, effort, and rest of the players. We will face the leader of Group Six, which includes strong teams like the Netherlands, Japan, and Sweden; this is a complicated path with major teams in the upcoming rounds like Spain and France."
