During the post-match press conference, Steve Clarke acknowledged the difficulty of facing the Moroccan national team, expressing his admiration for the technical and tactical performance of Yassine Bounou and his teammates, affirming that they are among the teams expected to make a strong impression in the tournament.
“I am a fan of the Moroccan national team, and I predict they will go far in this World Cup,” Clarked said. “They reached the semi-finals of the previous edition in Qatar, and they have the quality and squad depth to reach the semi-finals again.”
The Scottish coach explained that while his side fought hard to be a match for Morocco in their clash on Friday, conceding an early goal made their task difficult against world-class opponents.
“We were a real match for the Moroccan team at many points, but we couldn’t keep up with the tempo of the game after conceding the early goal. After that goal, we couldn’t take risks and go all out to look for an equalizer, because our opponent is very strong in transition and has players with great pace in open spaces,” he detailed.
Clarke insisted he was proud of his team despite the defeat, stressing that “other teams with weaker character than us would have completely collapsed and given up after that early goal.”
