Morocco finds Cup success with its defense

Morocco coach Walid Regragui is looking to entirely change the perception of how African teams play at the World Cup, and what they can achieve in the process.

Regragui has already made history as Morocco has become the first African team to reach the last four of a World Cup.

Morocco has succeeded on the strength of a monumental defensive performance, with the team allowing just one goal — an own goal against Canada — through five games of the tournament.

The Atlas Lions have ceded possession to their opponents and it has paid off, with Belgium, Spain and Portugal now among the teams to have fallen against Regragui’s side.

Regragui isn’t too concerned about any criticism of his team’s conservative style, saying the days of African teams who entertain at the World Cup but ultimately lose are over.

“Pep Guardiola was my hero for a long time, I wanted to play possession football and when you have the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, that is possible,” he said at a press conference ahead of Wednesday’s semifinal against France

“A lot of Europeans have criticized our style of play but that is because they don’t like to see an African team play cleverly. They think African teams used to be fun but get knocked out. But those days are over now. There isn’t just one way of winning.”

Regragui said he drew some inspiration from his team’s opponent on Wednesday, which defeated England in a game that the Three Lions mostly controlled.

“Look at France against England, they didn’t create 40 opportunities, they were just effective. I don’t really care about expected goals or possession. We had 0.01 percent chance of winning the World Cup at the outset, now we have 0.03 but we are going to try and destroy statistics.”