Football World Cup 2018 / Morocco

Football World Cup 2018 : Morocco
Trainer	Hervé Renard
captain	Medhi Benatia
Qualified as	Winner Africa Group C
World rankings before the tournament	41
Tournament result	Out after the preliminary round
Games won	0
Games tie	1
Games lost	2
Gates	2: 4

This article covers the Moroccan national football team at the 2018 World Cup . Morocco took part in the finals for the fifth time. The team last participated in 1998 and, like 2018, failed in the group stage.

qualification

The team qualified for the World Cup in Russia through the qualifying matches of the African Football Association CAF .

Games

Morocco began qualifying under Badou Zaki , under whom the team entered the second round and met Equatorial Guinea on both legs. After a 2-0 home win, the third round could be reached despite a 0-1 away defeat. In February 2016, the Moroccan Association and Badou Zaki agreed to terminate the contract. As his successor, Hervé Renard was committed, who led the team into the third round. This was played as a group stage and Morocco met in Group C against Ivory Coast , Gabon and Mali . In the six resulting games, the Moroccan team had three wins, three of which were drawn. The Moroccans were the only team to not concede a goal in the third round. However, you get the fewest victories of all African qualified teams. As group winners, the Moroccans qualified on the final day of the match with a 2-0 win in Ivory Coast, which meant they missed their fourth World Cup participation in a row.

A total of 40 players were used - based on the number of games, these are the most players. 13 of the players used only played one game. 17 players were also in the squad for the African Cup of Nations 2017 , in which Morocco was eliminated in the quarter-finals. As the only player, goalkeeper Munir El Kajoui was used in all eight games. Captain Medhi Benatia made seven appearances . The top scorer was Khalid Boutaïb with four goals, three of which he scored in a 3-0 win over Gabon. A total of nine players contributed at least one goal.

Second round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Morocco
Nov 12, 2015	Agadir	Morocco	-	Equatorial Guinea	2: 0 (1: 0)	Youssef El-Arabi (30th), Yacine Bammou (66th)
Nov 15, 2015	Bata	Equatorial Guinea	-	Morocco	1: 0 (1: 0)

Third round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for Morocco
10/08/2016	Franceville	Gabon	-	Morocco	0-0
11/12/2016	Marrakech	Morocco	-	Ivory Coast	0-0
09/01/2017	Rabat	Morocco	-	Mali	6: 0 (2: 0)	Hakim Ziyech (19th / penalty, 60th), Khalid Boutaïb (27th), Achraf Hakimi (72nd), Younès Belhanda (80th), Mimoun Mahi (88th)
05.09.2017	Bamako	Mali	-	Morocco	0-0
07.10.2017	Casablanca	Morocco	-	Gabon	3: 0 (1: 0)	Khalid Boutaïb (38th, 56th, 71st)
11/11/2017	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	-	Morocco	0: 2 (0: 2)	Nabil Dirar (24th), Medhi Benatia (30th)

Third round final table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Morocco	6th	3	3	0	011: 000	+11	12
2.	Ivory Coast	6th	2	2	2	007: 500	+2	08th
3.	Gabon	6th	1	3	2	002: 700	−5	06th
4th	Mali	6th	0	4th	2	001: 900	−8	04th

preparation

Games

date	Result	opponent	venue	Moroccan goal scorers
January 13, 2018	4-0	Mauritania	Casablanca	Ayoub El Kaabi (66th, 80th), Ismail El Haddad (72nd), Achraf Bencharki (90th + 2)
17th January 2018	3: 1	Guinea	Casablanca	Ayoub El Kaabi (27th, 64th, 68th)
January 21, 2018	0-0	Sudan	Casablanca
January 27, 2018	2-0	Namibia	Casablanca	Ayoub El Kaabi (36th), Salaheddine Saidi (55th)
January 31, 2018	3: 1 a.d.	Libya	Casablanca	Ayoub El Kaabi (73rd, 97th), Walid El Karti (118th / penalty)
4th February 2018	4-0	Nigeria	Casablanca	Zakaria Hadraf (45th, 64th) Walid El Karti (61st), Ayoub El Kaabi (73rd)
23 March 2018	2: 1	Serbia	Turin ( ITA )	Hakim Ziyech (29th / penalty), Khalid Boutaïb (40th)
March 27, 2018	2-0	Uzbekistan	Casablanca	Ayoub El Kaabi (4th), Manuel da Costa (43th)
May 31, 2018	0-0	Ukraine	Geneva ( CHE )
4th June 2018	2: 1	Slovakia	Geneva ( CHE )	Ayoub El Kaabi (64th), Younes Belhanda (74th)
June 9, 2018	3: 1	Estonia	Tallinn	Younes Belhanda (11th), Hakim Ziyech (38th / penalty), Youssef En-Nesyri (72nd)

Remarks:

Teams in italics are not qualified for the World Cup.

Only players from the domestic leagues were allowed to play in the games in January / February as part of the African Nations Cup . Only three players in the squad were also used in World Cup qualification, but only in one game each. Final opponent Nigeria only used goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa of the players used in the World Cup qualifiers , but not in the final.

Quarter

The team's quarters were the “ Marriott Hotel” in Voronezh , where the team could use the “Chaika” stadium for training purposes.

Squad

Badr Banoun was deleted from the provisional squad . No player has been used in a World Cup finals so far.

Item	No.	player	Club before the start of the World Cup	Date of birth	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	debut	Last use
goal	01	Yassine Bounou	FC Girona	04/05/1991	11	0	2013	04.06.2018
	12	Munir El Kajoui	CD Numancia	05/10/1989	28	0	2015	06/09/2018	3		1
	22nd	Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti	IR Tangier M	04/05/1996	2	0	2017	03/27/2018
Defense	05	Medhi Benatia	Juventus Turin M, P	04/17/1987	57	2	2008	06/09/2018	2		1
	04th	Manuel da Costa	Istanbul Başakşehir FK	05/06/1986	28	1	2014	06/09/2018	3		1
	17th	Nabil Dirar	Fenerbahçe Istanbul	02/25/1986	34	3	2008	03/23/2018	2
	02	Achraf Hakimi	Real Madrid C	11/04/1998	10	1	2016	06/09/2018	3		1
	03	Hamza Mendyl	Lille OSC	10/21/1997	13	0	2016	04.06.2018
	06th	Romain Saïss	Wolverhampton Wanderers M2	March 26, 1990	26th	1	2016	06/09/2018	2
midfield	08th	Karim El Ahmadi	Feyenoord Rotterdam P	01/27/1985	50	1	2008	06/09/2018	3		2
	15th	Youssef Aït Bennasser	SM Caen	07/07/1996	14th	0	2016	06/09/2018
	16	Nordin Amrabat	CD Leganés	March 31, 1987	44	4th	2011	06/09/2018	2		1
	21st	Sofyan Amrabat	Feyenoord Rotterdam P	08/21/1996	5	0	2017	06/09/2018	2
	10	Younès Belhanda	Galatasaray Istanbul M	02/25/1990	47	5	2010	06/09/2018	3
	14th	Mbark Boussoufa	al-Jazira Club	08/15/1984	59	7th	2006	06/09/2018	3		1
	11	Fayçal Fajr	Getafe CF.	08/01/1988	23	2	2015	04.06.2018	2
	18th	Amines Harit	FC Schalke 04	06/18/1997	6th	0	2017	06/09/2018	1
Storm	20th	Aziz Bouhaddouz	FC St. Pauli	03/30/1987	15th	3	2016	06/09/2018	2
	13	Khalid Boutaïb	Malatyaspor	04/24/1987	18th	8th	2016	06/09/2018	2	1
	23	Mehdi Carcela-González	Standard Liège P	07/01/1989	23	1	2011	04.06.2018	1
	09	Ayoub El Kaabi	RSB Berkane	06/26/1993	10	11	2018	06/09/2018	2
	19th	Youssef en-Nesyri	Málaga CF	06/01/1997	11	3	2016	06/09/2018	1	1
	07th	Hakim Ziyech	Ajax Amsterdam	03/19/1993	18th	8th	2015	06/09/2018	3
Coaching staff	Trainer	Hervé Renard		09/30/1968			2016		3
(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given (source: Kicker special edition WM 2018, as of May 20, 2018), data updated after the game on June 9 against Estonia.
↑ Clubs in italics played in the second division in the year of the World Cup, M = the club was champion of its country in the World Cup year, M2 = champion of the 2nd division in the World Cup year, P = cup winner in the World Cup year, C = winner of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League

Finals

Group draw

St. Petersburg Moscow Kaliningrad Voronezh

Venues and quarters (blue / italic) of the Moroccan team

For the draw for the qualifying groups on December 1st, Morocco was assigned to Pot 4. Morocco meet in Group B on European champions Portugal , the penultimate champion Spain and Iran . The Moroccans already played against Portugal in their second World Cup in 1986 and reached the knockout round with a 3-1 victory for the only time so far, where they lost 1-0 to runner-up Germany in the round of 16. There have not been any further games against Portugal. Against the Spanish national team there were two competitive defeats in qualifying for the 1962 World Cup and a goalless draw in a friendly match in 1968. There was also a draw and two defeats against the Spanish B team and one defeat against the Spanish amateur team in the game for 3rd place at the Mediterranean Games in 1963. There was only one game against Iran that was not counted by FIFA at a tournament in Beijing, in which club and B teams also took part. The Moroccans lost on penalties.

Morocco has only played against Russia in Moscow once in 2014, but not yet in the other two preliminary round venues.

Group stage / group B matches

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2018 / Group B

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	3	1	2	0	006: 500	+1	05
2.	Portugal	3	1	2	0	005: 400	+1	05
3.	Iran	3	1	1	1	002: 200	± 0	04th
4th	Morocco	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01

Friday, June 15, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) in Saint Petersburg
Morocco	-	Iran	0: 1 (0: 0)	90. + 5 ′ Bouhaddouz
Wed., June 20, 2018, 3 p.m. (2 p.m. CEST) in Moscow (Luschniki Olympic Stadium)
Portugal	-	Morocco	1: 0 (1: 0)
Mon., June 25, 2018, 8:00 p.m. (CEST) in Kaliningrad
Spain	-	Morocco	2: 2 (1: 1)	14. ′ Boutaïb , 81. ′ En-Nesyri

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bbc.com: Badou Zaki leaves post as Morocco coach by mutual consent
2. ↑ fifa.com: 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Team Base Camps
3. ^ 1st Beijing International Friendship Tournament 1977