Rabat - The head coach of Morocco’s national football team, Hervé Renard, expressed his disappointment after Morocco’s 1-0 own goal loss to Iran in its first 2018 World Cup game.
Rabat – The head coach of Morocco’s national football team, Hervé Renard, expressed his disappointment after Morocco’s 1-0 own goal loss to Iran in its first 2018 World Cup game.
In a post-match conference held in St. Petersburg, Renard said that he is very disappointed with the result, saying that he would have“come to the conference disappointed” even if the game finished with a draw.
He added that people “can imagine what the defeat means” as Morocco missed “lots of opportunities. I think it is the worst thing that could have happened in an additional time.”
The coach also expressed hope to see his team achieve a better result in the second match against Portugal on June 20.
Moroccan midfielder Amine Harit, who accompanied Renard in the press conference, told reporters: “I would have preferred not to be called the man of the match and win the match. I think it would have been the same for any other player.”
Harit showed an excellent performance, but missed several opportunities to disappoint the Iranian team.
Harit agreed with his coach, saying that the team had a lot of opportunities to win the game.
“I think we have a lots of opportunities, but we were not efficient and I am the first in line and I think we should have done better,” Harit added.
The Moroccan footballer also expressed disappointment over not being able to win the first game in the World Cup’s group stage, recognizing that there are two other difficult matches against Portugal and Spain.
“Now we have to forget the defeat of today” to focus on the other games, he added.
When a reporter asked Renard about what was needed to win the match, Renard said: “We were missing a lot of technical justice,” said the coach. He added that his team lost several balls, which they did not in other games.
Renard also congratulated Iran for today’s win.
Morocco will play its second game against Portugal on June 20 in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium. The last game will be against Spain on June 25 in Kaliningrad Stadium.
