Automatically qualified for African Cup 2025 as the organizing country, the Morocco takes part in the qualifiers in order to stay up to date with teams from the continent and to demonstrate that the team is capable of qualifying in all circumstances. The objective of this participation in the playoffs is also to prepare the team to win this CAN which is played at home, an objective that Walid Regragui hopes to achieve with Lions of the Atlas.
During the pre-match conference Morocco-Gaboncounting for the fifth day of the qualifiers, the national coach spoke of the importance of playing these matches for the objective of winning the CAN as an organizing country, as well as the pressure linked to this status. “We have a plan and short and medium term objectives with the Federation. The first is to compete in the playoffs to demonstrate that the Morocco would have validated his ticket for the final phase, even if it was not to be organized in the Kingdom, and this is already the case. Next, we want to focus on our CAN at home and qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, because mathematically this is not yet the case,” underlined coach Walid.
Walid Regragui: We must be ready at the right time to win the CAN
One of the most important goals for national football for decades has been to win a second African Cup of Nations and overcome this phycological obstacle which haunts the Morocco for years on the continental scene. “Our short-term objective is to win the CAN at home. As you know, each organizing country feels this obligation and we are also in this process. This involves matches during which we learn things to be ready on the big day. As I said during the last press conference in Morocco: being ready too early is not good, being ready too late is not good either! We hope to be ready at the right time at home to be able to lift this Trophy which has eluded us for a long time,” revealed the former WAC coach.
Morocco
