National football team manager Walid Regragui has claimed he has three of the best forwards, in addition to Tarik Tissoudali’s return from injury, while pointing to the absence of left-back Adam Massina in the next game against Cape Verde.
“Adam Massina’s services will be missed through injury, and we are ready to face Cape Verde”, said Regragui during the press conference organized this Saturday at the Mohammed VI Complex in Salé. “In modern football, there are no small teams”added the Atlas Lions coach.
“Through my little experience in Africa, I remember the last game we played against this team when I was assistant coach of Rachid Taoussi, we did not manage to beat them. They have good players playing in Spain, France… it’s not going to be such an easy game. If we make the mistake of not respecting them, we will be surprised. We will stay in our game plan and in our state of mind. If we respect our opponents and if we keep our state of mind and our game plan, we will continue to achieve good results.he continued.
As for the non-calls of Sofiane Rahimi, who shines in the United Arab Emirates or Ryan Mmae, Regragui said: “I’m not hurting anyone, but I have other players and the choice remains with me, and there are other names coming. We used to say, “Why doesn’t so-and-so come? Why didn’t we call such and such a player? The national team has specific criteria, and we don’t choose players based on Raja or Wydad”.
He went on to say: “We are favorites to win the African Cup. I am currently working on preparing the national team to be ready for the Africa Cup final. There is a difference between playing at a high level in the World Cup final and playing in Africa where the atmosphere is completely different”.