Morocco boss Walid Regragui: “I told my players that France were the worst team in the World Cup knockouts.” | OneFootball

Morocco boss Walid Regragui spoke in a lengthy interview with L’Équipe after the dust has settled on one of most impressive World Cup runs from in the history of the tournament. It is almost a month after the semi-final stage of the competition was concluded, as the Atlas Lions were knocked out by France in a historic match on so many levels for the North African side.

Regragui reflected on this historic run, and specifically more on the semi-final with France. He explained to L’Équipe that during half-time against Les Bleus he told his players that France were “the worst team in the knockout phase of the competition”.

This led to a feeling that Morocco could have progressed, “I’m talking about this match, of course, not about France in general, which is a great team,” Regragui clarifies.  He admits that there was “regret at the end, but I’m not naive – at the very highest level, you always think that you are not far away from France’s level, but in fact you are miles away.”

the ceiling was a bit too high for us.”