Morocco coach Walid Regragui made history. The team became the first African to reach a World Cup semifinal, which raised the coach’s level. He, however, has only been in office for three months and has a degree in economics, in addition to being a former player.
In his football wanderings, at the end of his career as an athlete, in 2008, he met the striker who will be one of his biggest headaches in the match this Wednesday (14th), against France, at 4 pm: Olivier Giroud. They were together during the pre-season of the French Grenoble and, according to the French newspaper Le Dauphine, played in a friendly against Strasbourg.
The striker moved to Istres while Regragui ended his career at Fleury 91, taking the first steps in his coaching career soon after. He started out as an assistant coach for the Morocco national team.
Another important coincidence, pointed out by the English newspaper Daily Mail, is that Regragui was taking a course with coach Mikel Arteta, from Arsenal, a year ago. At the seminar, one of the things that was discussed was the victory of the London team over Manchester City, considered a powerhouse of British football and current champion.
For this Wednesday’s match, Regragui said he will maintain Morocco’s style, without creating a specific plan to defend against Kylian Mbappé, the tournament’s top scorer so far with five goals.
“I’m not going to try to establish any specific tactical plan to fight Kylian,” he said. “France have other good players too. Griezmann is at the top of his game and Dembelé is also a perfect complement to Mbappé on the other wing.”
The duel between Mbappé and Hakimi, PSG teammates, is one that generates expectations. That’s how it was when Kyle Walker, England’s right-back, was preparing to face the Frenchman.
“Achraf [Hakimi] knows Mbappé better than I do and trains with him on a daily basis, so he is better positioned than I am to know how to deal with Kylian. Hakimi is one of the best players in the world, so it’s going to be a great duel between the two”, analyzed Regragui.
Morocco has yet to lose in this edition of the World Cup. In the group stage, they drew with Croatia and beat Belgium and Canada to take the lead. Afterwards, he went through Spain on penalties and dispatched Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal by 1 to 0. The selection only conceded one goal so far, which was against. No team managed to overcome the barrier that is goalkeeper Bounou.
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