January 14 News Recently, in an exclusive interview with L’Equipe, Morocco coach Reguera
Ji reviewed his experience of leading the team to the World Cup in Qatar and his views on the World Cup.
The World Cup in Qatar is over. What is your deepest impression before and after the World Cup in Qatar?
“What impressed me most was when we returned to Rabat in Morocco, His Majesty the King and the fans at the airport came to welcome us back home. After the World Cup, we had already accumulated a lot of emotions. We were isolated from the outside world in Qatar for five years.
This week, even though we can see people cheering us on social networks, it has to be experienced to understand. At that moment, we found that our every move can even touch those who have never been involved in football. We let
The nation is proud.”
You only started leading the team in early August, how did you prepare for this World Cup?
“We worked a lot for the World Cup. In the first fifteen days we analyzed all the games together to determine the style of play we were going to play. I decided on a 4-1-4-1 formation,
It’s a formation we played in World Cup qualifiers and it suits us perfectly.”
“Then I have to get in the players’ minds and tell them what I expect from them. I’m spending more time on video calls with the players, I’m talking to 40-45 players. The first thing I see is us
Captains Seth, Ashraf and Bunu, I want to know how they see the upcoming games.”
Is Spain the most watched champions in Morocco’s World Cup run?
“Yes, Spain is the best, the best team we’ve played against in this World Cup. If we don’t knock out Spain, I think they can make it all the way to the final. What Spain may lack is an Indian striker, but
They play with a level of confidence and uncertainty that no other team has.”
“As for the preparation for this game, it is actually very simple. I believe the media has explained that they deliberately lost to Japan in the group stage. They may hope to face Morocco in the quarter-finals. It will be a no-brainer for Spain to beat us.
‘They don’t respect you’ message is basically everywhere (laughs).”
On Ziyech’s return to the Morocco national team
“The hardest part of talking to the player was talking to him one-on-one because at the time he was angry about the situation and initially he didn’t respond to me, so I went through a mutual friend and we talked first via video. This time
The conversation laid the groundwork for the World Cup. He came back, we were united, I didn’t see anything bad in the team in Qatar, we all wanted to win games.”
In the communication with the players, what do you say?
“We don’t have any burdens, we will accept any challenge, I have no doubts about it. When you see some of your players come from big teams like Hakimi at Paris Saint-Germain, Ziyech at Chelsea,
Bunu in Sevilla, Mazraoui in Bayern, etc. I told them that we are a team that can beat any team. Then it was my job to convince them of that. When I arrived in Qatar, I
Think they believe in that more than usual.”
Many of the Moroccan players do not speak the same language. Some players were born in Belgium, Morocco, France, the Netherlands, etc. How do you communicate?
“I speak Spanish, French and English, although not perfect. But our organization is very clear, all meetings, talks are conducted in Arabic, this is the identity of our team, we will put a person who can speak Arabic
Players who speak one language are placed next to those who do not understand Arabic. For example, Seth will translate for English-speaking players.”
What did you say in your speech before the game against Croatia?
“At the time, my thinking was to see this game as a mini-tournament. There are two stages to this game, the first stage, we can’t lose the game in regulation time, we want to save ‘life’. Then there is the second stage.
This stage of the game, anything is possible at this stage.”
“The most difficult part of the World Cup for us was the group stage. The draw against Croatia (0-0) reassured us, and after that, I’m sure we’ll be hard-pressed to beat Belgium (2-0).
) to get us out.”