Morocco to Play a Friendly Against Serbia Ahead of 2018 World Cup

Rabat – Another team was added to Morocco’s friendlies agenda ahead of the 2018 World Cup. The Moroccan national football team is set to play a friendly game against Serbia on March 23 in London.

In efforts to get the team ready for the 2018 World Cup, Morocco’s football manager Herve Renard is scheduling a series of friendly games with international teams. These friendlies are aimed at testing and evaluating the team’s weaknesses and strengths. The match against Serbia will be played in London. The date for the game was not yet scheduled.

Morocco is also set to play a friendly against Uzbekistan in Casablanca on March 27.

Morocco has chosen the Uzbek team as its style of play and tactics are similar to those of Morocco’s World Cup first opponent, Iran. On December 1, Morocco was placed in group B along with Iran, Spain and Portugal. The Atlas Lions will play against Iran on June 15.

Before the tournament’s final draw on December 1 in Moscow, Moroccan daily newspaper Assabah reported that Morocco’s team manager, Herve Renard, wanted his team to play against European and Latin American squads to evaluate the Lions’ abilities.

Earlier this year, speculation were spread by international media that the Moroccan team would play two friendlies against Scotland and Argentina.

Fouzi Lekjaa, the president of  Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF), said in an interview with Moroccan sports channel Arriyadia that Moroccan squad will face Argentina in a friendly in Agadir next March.

FRMF was also wishing for a friendly against the Belgian national football team, but its request was declined by the Belgian football federation.

In December 2017, Youssef Hijoub, a Moroccan FIFA agent, has said that the Belgian team declined FRMF’s invitation due to security concerns.

Speaking in a TV program featured by French news channel France24, Hijoub said that the Belgian authorities refused friendlies against countries of North Africa, including Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria in order to avoid all security threats.