‘It is like the booby-prize’ – Regragui looks ahead to Croatia tussle in World Cup third-place play-off
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Updated 16/12/2022 at 14:14 GMT
Walid Regragui was understandably deflated ahead of Morocco's World Cup third-place play-off against Croatia on Saturday. The Atlas Lions were defeated 2-0 by France in their World Cup semi-final on Wednesday thanks to goals from Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani sealed Les Bleus a place in consecutive World Cup finals. Croatia were defeated 3-0 by Argentina on Tuesday.
'I'm changing that mentality' - Regragui wants Morocco to believe they can make World Cup Final
Walid Regragui believes the World Cup third-place play-off is akin to a “booby prize” ahead of their showdown with Croatia on Saturday afternoon.
Regragui’s men stunned Belgium, Spain and Portugal on their route to the last four, but the head coach was still left with a feeling of what might have been heading into the game.
"It is a little bit difficult,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
"It is very complicated for both teams. You are so disappointed; you have just lost a semi-final and then two days later you have to go back out there.
"It is like the booby-prize. I'm sorry for speaking like this. I understand it should be important, I understand it is better to finish third than fourth, but, for me, my takeaway is just that we didn't get to the final.
"Even if we did get to the final, and I finished second, I would be saying the same thing to you.
"We want to be as positive as possible, especially for our fans. Finishing third would be great for our image."
However, the Morocco head coach emphasised the desire among the squad to finish third, despite describing the match as “the worst game that we have to play.”
"I guess it the worst game that we have to play," he added. "But we're still excited to play it despite the disappointment.
"We obviously would have liked to be in the actual final but there is third place we play for. We want to finish on the podium.
"It is going to be quite difficult with fatigue, but there are also mental hurdles that we need to overcome. We know that Croatia will also want to finish third. We played them in our first game so it will be a nice finisher. It will be no walk in the park.
"Obviously finishing third is not the same as the finishing fourth and it would be great to take a medal home with us.
"We want to ensure that we finish well and my players have digested the defeat by France.
"They've got their heads around the fact they are part of the best teams in the world. We need to clear our heads and go into this game with our heads held high."
The Atlas Lions have enjoyed a record-breaking tournament and became the first-ever African nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
They comfortably surpassed their previous best performance at the finals in 1986, when Morocco reached the last 16.
The match against Croatia takes place at the Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday, kicking-off at 15:00 GMT.
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