Today’s leading Moroccan newspapers reported on the sudden exclusion of the Atlas Lions from the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations currently being held in Côte d’Ivoire after losing to South Africa with two goals to nothing, leaving the Lions out of the competition early.
The Moroccan website Le 360 published a video entitled, “The Lions players apologize to the Moroccan fans… The players of the first national football team apologized to the Moroccan fans following the disappointment of the South African team’s exclusion from the 16th round of the African Cup of Nations final.”
In another headline: “Regragui reveals his future with the national team after being excluded from the club.”
Walid Regragui, the national football team, confirmed that he will decide on the issue of whether or not he resigns from the national team after the Lions’ exit from the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations currently being held in Côte d’Ivoire, and he said that he will decide on his future with the national team after returning from Côte d’Ivoire.
Walid Al-Ragraki: I bear responsibility for the exclusion for my wrong choices of players
The Atlas Lions coach said that he bears responsibility for the exclusion from the African Cup of Nations because of his wrong choices of players, and his bet on Achraf Hakimi to take the penalty kick that he missed.
Meanwhile, the Moroccan newspaper Al-Tawla published the headline: “Regragui about his future: “I will sit with the president and the university and we will see the appropriate decision for the Moroccan national team,” stressing that the Lions coach will sit with the Football Association in the future in order to make the appropriate decision for the national team.”
Regragui said: “I bear responsibility. I will sit with the president and the university and we will see what is appropriate for Morocco.”
While the Moroccan newspaper Hespress quoted Regragui’s statements in which he said: “The Lions will learn from exclusion.” It then quoted Walid Regragui’s statements in which he stressed that the Moroccan national team has a group that will learn in the future from the mistakes that caused exclusion from the 16th round of the African Cup final, “Côte d’Ivoire.” 2023.”
Regragui continued: “The national team includes young players who gave everything they had, and they will learn a lot from this exclusion in the upcoming tournaments, by relying on some young players.”
The Atlas Lions coach highlighted at the end of his statements, saying that he was confident in all the players who were invited to this tournament, and that the team is in the process of building, stressing that the young players will achieve the African Cup title in the future.
