Botola D1: Wydad can always believe in a participation in the Champions League

Sunday 04th May 2025 11:49 PM

The last decision of the executive office of Wydad de Casablanca Immediately paid off, since the team returned to success just after the South African coach is sidelined Rulani Makwena. On behalf of the 28th day of the Botola Pro Iwni D1the Reds welcomed theAS FAR At the Mohammed V complex in Casablanca, Saturday evening. Supporters brandished a sublime tifo at the start of the match, recalling the glorious evenings in the legendary Casablanca stadium. WAC players thanked their fans by unlocking the counter in the 31st minute of play, through the Ghanaian striker Samuel screwdriver.

After the passage in the locker room, the members of the capital replied through Abdelfatta Hadraf, who restored parity in the 57th minute, but the protégés of Amine Benhachem managed to resume the advantage ten minutes later, thanks to the South African Thembinkosi Lorch (67th). The Wydad then managed to manage his advance until the final whistle, pocketing the three points of the victory, the twelfth of the WAC this season in Botola Pro inwi D1. Thanks to this success, the Wydad is only three points behind AS FAR in the general classification. If the capital team were to bow in the last two days of the Botola Pro Iwni D1, it could yield the qualifying ticket to the Champions League to WAC.

Mokwena’s sidelining, an already profitable decision

At the start of the season, the Wydad managing office set the second position as a season’s goal, after the arrival of Rulani Mokwena. But the coach failed to meet the expectations of leaders or those of supporters, who demanded his departure since last February. Last week, the WAC administration had assured that the contract of coach Rulani Mokwena would be officially terminated just after the end of the Botola, out of respect for the clauses of the contract concluded between the two parties. This decision, which will not generate “no penalty or compensation, unlike the rumors circulating”, intervened the day after the sixth consecutive zero recorded by the Wydad under the orders of Mokwena in Botola Pro inwi D1, facing the Olympic of Safi (1-1), on behalf of the 27th day.

In the race for second place in the championship, Mokwena has not achieved the slightest victory since February 16 (21st day, 5-1 against the Chabab of Mohammedia). This series of disappointments had enabled AS Far to consolidate its place in second position and had wraised the anger of the Wydad supporters, already disgusted by the elimination in the round of 16 of the Throne Cup against the Moghreb of Tétouan. The club’s executive office could not afford to dismiss the coach, at the risk of paying more than a billion penalty cents (unilateral termination of the contract). The formula adopted therefore seems to arrange all the parties, since Mokwena will continue to perceive its monthly salaries to the end of the championship, while the supporters are already taking advantage of the arrival of a new technician on the sidelines, a coach who managed to unlock the situation from his first appearance.