The path to the next World Cup finals is all but cleared for Morocco manager Walid Regragui. Ideally, progress will be concluded, come September, with an unblemished qualifying record that will be unique among the several Mena countries likely to be making their way to North America and Mexico.
But Regragui’s true challenge now is to negotiate the many twists and turns in the longer road ahead.
Morocco, history-making semi-finalists at the last World Cup in Qatar, won their fifth qualifier out of five on Tuesday evening in Oujda, the 2-0 victory over Tanzania easing them to a nine-point lead in Africa’s Group E.
Once the permanent removal of Congo from the group table – having been suspended by Fifa and their remaining matches cancelled – has been rubber-stamped and adjustments made around those games the Congolese had played, the only question will be how cushioned the final margin between the Atlas Lions and the next best – Niger, Tanzania or Zambia – looks.
Regragui acknowledges Morocco’s dominance in a relatively tame group masks some uncomfortable moments.
Last week, against Niger, his side went 1-0 down shortly after half-time, securing a 2-1 victory only through Bilal El Khannouss’s stoppage time goal. “We were asleep in the first-half and it was a useful wake-up call about the reality of what happens on the pitch,” said the coach.
He knows that, on paper, Morocco present themselves as daunting heavyweights to most of the rest of their continent and, indeed, to a majority of the 47 other nations who will join them at the 2026 World Cup finals. But in practice, there must always be vigilance against complacency and skillful preparation for outbreaks of fatigue.
The latter is a concern. While Morocco’s match schedule should be lightened by the cancellation of their October fixture against Congo, the country will in December stage its biggest football event for 37 years, one they intend to be involved in for the duration.
With Morocco’s hosting of the Africa Cup of Nations, their tight grip on the highest Fifa men’s ranking in Africa and their status as favourites comes sapping pressure.
They are expected to triumph at home. It’s an expectation shadowed by the anxious recall of their underperformance of Regragui’s team at the last Afcon when they exited at the last 16 phase. “We have learnt from our mistakes, but we need to stay grounded,” Regragui promised.
He can only control so much. The next seven months, up to the 2025 Afcon, is bound to feel draining for many of his players. They are at the sharp end of a brutally congested elite calendar.
There are the various domestic battles they face, over the next two months, in their club seasons – from El Khannous’s scrap against relegation with the English Premier League’s Leicester City to Brahim Diaz’s pursuit of a Liga and Copa del Rey double with Real Madrid – and beyond extensive engagements for many in the business end of the major continental tournaments.
Regragui’s disparate group has players competing for Champions League titles in Asia, Africa and Europe. And several of those footballers will then be heading to June and July’s expanded Fifa Club World Cup in the USA.
The list runs from Soufiane Rahimi with Al Ain to Achraf Hakimi with Paris Saint Germain, to Yahya Attiyat Allah with Al Ahly to Jama Harkass with WAC of Casablanca, to Brahim with Madrid.
In some of those cases, like Soufiane and Achraf, who were part of Morocco’s bronze medal Olympic team in Paris last summer, they will be looking back, in August, at 12 months of almost uninterrupted workload.
Some wear and tear from all this must be anticipated. Which is why Regragui, aided by the Moroccan Federation’s diligent work in persuading young dual-national professionals to commit to choosing the land of their heritage rather than of their birth for their senior international careers, has pushed hard to broaden his pool of available talent.
He has made it clear that, while the march to the last four at the Qatar World Cup in 2022 is a milestone to be forever cherished across the Arab world and Africa, it will not be sentimentalised.
It was a launch pad for future Atlas Lions more than it was any guarantee of long-term loyalty to individual heroes.
One of the standout stars of the Qatar adventure, Hakim Ziyech, was omitted from the squad for the last round of internationals, Regragui travelling to Doha, where Ziyech plays for Al Duhail, to explain to the winger that while he remains a potential game-changer for his country, he will only be that if he shows consistent form for his club.
The landscape has changed. In the period since last February, when Morocco made their disappointing early departure from the last Afcon, Regragui has given fresh call-ups to seven players aged 21 or under.
One of those, Eliesse Ben Seghir of Monaco has registered three goals and three assists in seven competitive starts for the Atlas Lions.
Nor is he a sure-fire shoo-in for one of the wide attacking positions in Regragui’s ideal XI – not if Amine Adli, Abde Ezzalzouli, Omar Sahraoui, Zakaria Aboukhlal, Ilias Akhomach, Chemsdine Talbi or the versatile Rahimi have been showing more spark on the practice pitch.
The impact of Brahim, who was capped for the first time just over a year ago – having completed the Fifa registration procedures to commit to Morocco rather than his native Spain, for whom he had played one senior international friendly in 2021 – has meanwhile been emphatic.
On Tuesday the Madrid playmaker scored his eighth Morocco goal – by converting a penalty against Tanzania – in as many competitive games for his country.
Ziyech has certainly seen how far the creative duties once concentrated around his masterly left foot and his eye for a pass are being spread around: to a fleet of young wingers; to the promptings from attacking midfield of Brahim, El Khannouss and Ismael Saibari.
The latter pair came off the bench against Niger to turn a losing scoreline into three points, a welcome demonstration to the head coach of the strength-in-depth he is carefully cultivating.
“Substitutes can change everything in a game,” said Regragui. “We have the quality in our squad, but competition for places is tough.” And he warned: “Players who doze and aren’t giving their all for the team will stay on the bench.”
