Rabat – The Moroccan national football team is set to play five friendly games before heading to Russia for the 2018 World Cup.
According to Moroccan daily Assabah, the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) will attend the tournament’s draw on December 1 in Moscow to decide which teams will play friendlies with the Atlas lions.
The newspaper reported that Morocco’s team manager Herve Renard wants his team to play against two European and a Latin American squad to evaluate his players’ strengths and weaknesses.
Earlier this year, speculations were spread by international sports outlets that the Moroccan team would play two friendlies against Scotland and Argentina.
In an interview with Moroccan sports channel Arriyadia on November 1, FRMF President Fouzi Lekjaa confirmed that the Moroccan squad will face Argentina in a friendly in Agadir next March.
FRMF is seeking to promote its candidacy for the organization of the 2026 World Cup through the Morocco-Argentina friendly.
“It has been a while that we’re working on taking it to the next level for the Moroccan team in terms of the friendly games,” Lekjaa said.
All the Latin American team’s stars will be there, including FC Barcelona‘s living legend Lionel Messi, whom the FRMF insisted would attend to promote the event abroad, according to Lekjaa.
The last time Morocco and Argentina met was in April 2004 in Casablanca in another friendly game. The visiting team won the match 1-0.
The upcoming friendlies will also help the team to prepare themselves for the world tournament.
