After the victory of the Atlas Lion Cubs U20 against Egypt (2-1) on the first day of the UNAF tournament, national coach Mohamed Ouahbi gave his impressions of this meeting. An important success for Morocco in this qualifying tournament for the CAN U20, which allowed the team to place itself in a good position from the start of the competition.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult match,” admitted Ouahbi after the match. For the coach, winning the first match of a tournament is crucial, and even more so against an Egyptian team determined to win in front of their home crowd in Ismailia. “In this kind of tournament, the first day is important, you have to win it,” he explained, emphasizing the importance of this successful start.
Morocco had to deal with the aggressiveness of the Egyptian team, who knew how to put pressure on at the start of the match. “We knew that at home, they were going to be very aggressive, and that’s what they did,” Ouahbi said. The Moroccans took a while to find their rhythm: “We had a little trouble at the start, but after 20-25 minutes, we started to get the ball out and be a little calmer.”
If Morocco opened the scoring through El Haddad in the 40th minute, the coach noted certain shortcomings in the first period, particularly in ball management. “We lacked calm in our ball exits, in our progression phases, and in our possession phases,” he admitted. These points, however, improved as the match progressed, allowing the Cubs to regain control and show their dangerousness in transition.
The coach did not fail to salute the contribution of his bench, in particular that of Othmane Maamma, author of the winning goal in the 68th minute. “We showed them that we could hurt them in our transitions, that we had players on the bench capable of making the difference,” Ouahbi said. “Othmane Maamma came on and scored the winning goal even though he was not even at 100%.”
With this victory, Morocco is ideally positioned for the rest of the UNAF tournament. The coach recalled the importance of this first victory to give the team confidence. The rest of the competition will be an opportunity to continue to progress and refine the weak points identified in this first match.
