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The match between Atlas Lions and the Congolese Leopards will take place at 4 p.m. at the Martyrs Stadium in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa.
Moroccan football fans wanting to follow the game can find it on Arriyadia TNT or the Saudi SSC3, Portuguese Sport TV3, ESPN 1 Nederland HD, as well as the Youtube channel of the International Football Federation (FIFA).
South African referee Victor Miguel de Freitas Gomes will officiate the DRC-Morocco game, with assistance from Thsu Granville and Souru Phatsoane of Lesotho and Helder Martins de Carvalho from Angola as the fourth referee.
The game is an opportunity for Morocco’s Atlas Lions to qualify to the world’s most prestigious football tournament and compensate Moroccan football fans for the team’s performance in this year’s African Cup of Nations.
Atlas Lions’ captain Romain Sais said in yesterday’s pre-match press conference that Morocco’s players “are determined to bring victory and nothing else.”
Sais stressed that the national team is ambitious to “qualify for the World Cup and turn the page of the last CAN” regardless of “the difficulty of the game.”
Meanwhile, Morocco’s Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic said that heat and humidity will make the game difficult for both teams, “but we must adapt well to these conditions.”
“We came to Kinshasa to win and qualify for the World Cup. So we are well focused on the game,” said Halilhodzic.
Halilhodzic declared the absence of Abde Ezzalzouli in the game, explaining that he “arrived from Barcelona with knee discomfort.”
The Martyrs Stadium has “synthetic turf, which can lead to serious complications. We preferred to rest and schedule individual training sessions, in preparation for the match in Casablanca,” noted Halilhodzic.
The second leg is scheduled for March 29 at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca at 7:30 (GMT).
