DOHA
\nMorocco coach Walid Regragui has said he believes an African team will win the World Cup in the next \u201c15 to 20 years\u201d after his team finished fourth in Qatar. The Atlas Lions, who became the first African World Cup semi-finalists in history, lost Saturday\u2019s third place play-off 2-1 against 2018 runners-up Croatia but captured the imagination in Qatar.
\n\u201cWith nine participants, we\u2019re going to learn. In 15, 20 years, I\u2019m sure an African team will win the World Cup because we\u2019ll have learned,\u201d said Regragui.
\n\u201cWe have a stage to get past. We need to build on that, with hard work and desire. This DNA is not just being built for Morocco, but for the continent.\u201d
\nMorocco\u2019s run to the semi-finals was the unlikeliest story of the tournament, topping a group that contained Croatia and second-ranked Belgium. The team then beat Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages.
\nHakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi became the first Moroccan players to participate in 10 World Cup matches.
\nThe next World Cup in 2026, held across the USA, Canada and Mexico, will be expanded to 48 teams and Africa will have at least nine slots, up from five at present.
\nTheir run was ended in the semi-finals by defending champions France, but Regragui has urged his players to back up their historic display by winning next year\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations.
\n\u201cI said to the players in the changing room, if you want to go down in history then you\u2019re going to have to win the Africa Cup of Nations,\u201d said Regragui.
\n\u201cWe need to dominate our continent.\u201d
\nMorocco have been crowned African champions just once, in 1976, but their performances at the World Cup demonstrated they are a team on the rise under Regragui, who was only appointed in August.
\n\u201cTomorrow morning we\u2019ll take stock and all realise we\u2019ve pulled off a fantastic achievement here. We\u2019ve earned a great deal of experience in a short space of time,\u201d said Regragui.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve gone further than expected but it\u2019s not enough. It needs to set an example for the future. I hope that everybody (in Africa) will learn from the experience.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great future ahead of us and we\u2019ll keep moving forward.
\n\u201cOf course we have the objective of winning the World Cup one day. There\u2019s going to be more pressure on us going forward and hopefully there will be more African teams following our example.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve shown we can go toe to toe with top teams. Really very small details determine these games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOHA Morocco coach Walid Regragui has said he believes an African team will win the World Cup in the next \u201c15 to 20 years\u201d after his team finished fourth in Qatar. The Atlas Lions, who became the first African World Cup semi-finalists in history, lost Saturday\u2019s third place play-off 2-1 against 2018 runners-up Croatia but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-302019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n