Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi said his team gave it their all in the World Cup 2026 quarter-final against the last tournament's finalists France but fell short against a better team.
France captain Kylian Mbappe missed a penalty but curled in an exquisite goal on the hour as France scored twice in six minutes to complete a 2-0 win and book their spot in the semi-finals.
Ouahbi said his side put in a commendable effort and will assess where they fell short.
“I told my players to keep their heads high because we gave our all, we gave our best, but, of course, we need to take stock of the situation, to progress, it's essential,” Ouahbi told reporters.
“The future will be bright if we continue like this, but that doesn't mean we didn't want to win today. Of course we wanted to win today. We did everything we could to win, but we faced a very difficult opponent.
“We cannot just say that we're happy and proud of our performance. We need to move forward, and in order to do so, we have to be objective and to do some self-criticism, to assess the situation.”
Despite the exit, Morocco's performance came in praise, including from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
“Proud of the honourable level achieved by the Moroccan national team in the world's greatest sporting event. You raised the head of the Arabs. Thank you, Atlas Lions. Hard luck. And your future is even brighter, God willing,” Sheikh Mohammed wrote on X.
For coach Ouahbi, it was difficult to look past the fact that Morocco were playing catch-up for almost the entire match and hardly troubled the French goal. It must be noted Morocco were playing without injured forward Ismael Saibari.
“We are disappointed but the first half was very difficult, the French were very good with a ball. They had a lot of possession, they caused a lot of problems on the flanks with their players, and also in the centre,” Ouahbi said.
“When we had the ball, our transitions were not so great, so we needed to run a bit more, and they ended up being in a comfort zone.
“We have to recognise that they're a great team. They have excellent players and had better goal-scoring opportunities. We lacked ideas and freshness, to do more when we had possession. We have to accept this defeat.
“It is hard to talk so soon after the match, but it's also difficult to talk about regrets when we got to the quarter-final.”
Meanwhile, Mbappe, who scored his eighth goal of this World Cup and the 20th of his tournament career, departed early in the match but insisted he will be ready for next week's semi-final.
“I have a minor ankle injury, but I'm completely fine,” Mbappe said after the final whistle sealed France's third consecutive semi-final appearance.
“ (Jean-Philippe) Mateta was in a better position to play the remaining minutes of the match and was fitter at that moment. That's all that happened.”
