Ouahbi – who guided Morocco’s U20s to success at the Under-20 World Cup in 2025 – admitted, however, that France were the “stronger” team on the day.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi has said the Atlas Lions will try to “eliminate France in four years’ time” after Les Bleus defeated them in a second successive World Cup match on Thursday.
He made the promise to fans of the North African country during his post-match interview following the quarter-final encounter at Boston Stadium.
Two second-half goals from Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé ensured a 2-0 victory for France and a semi-final clash against Spain or Belgium.
Prior to this win, Didier Deschamps’ men had beaten Morocco by the same margin in their semi-final clash at Al Bayt during the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Reacting to the defeat, Ouahbi – who guided Morocco’s U20s to success at the Under-20 World Cup in 2025 – admitted that France were the “stronger” team on the day.
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He further noted that the co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup will now build and improve a team that will be ready to finally beat France in four years’ time.
”It is clear today that France was stronger,” Ouahbi said. “But we can progress and improve further and maybe eliminate them in four years’ time.”
He added: “We have a young team, we want to grow and we will continue to do so. Our young players will grow – we have a team that can win and achieve titles in the future.
”We can’t just say we are happy and proud of our achievements here – we need to move forward, be self-critical and assess the situation.
”We have a lot of young players, a great pool of talent, a strong federation and a King who invests a lot to help us reach the quarter-finals.
”The players are disappointed by this defeat, of course, but we need this mentality to win. It’s very important to try to win and believe in yourselves.
”We wanted to win the World Cup. We are disappointed that we lost and that it’s over, but our people are happy with the image we have given them.”
