Wednesday, July 13, 2022, maybe a historic day in the national football annals. Morocco is very close to qualifying for the next Women's World Cup.
The women's national team had just had a clear run during the group stage of the current CAN with 3 wins under coach Reynald Pedro, head of a group led by Captain Ghozlan Shbak, and voted as the best player in the first tournament stage.
The stakes are high for the Atlas lionesses. Although their whispering ambition is to get ahead of the competition.
But despite being aware of their own improvement space, players are giving a measured speeches about their goals in this competition. Reynald Pedro, twice European champion with Olympique Lyonnais before accepting a new challenge with the national team, this regular in leadership roles in women's football prefers to keep his feet on the ground.
"It will definitely be a tough match, like the one we lived through in the group stage (...) today, we lost a lot of things, with a lot of wastage in the match which is partly due to fatigue because it is still the third in the mixed zone after the national team coach," said the coach of the national team in the mixed zone after The win over Senegal on Friday night, "We will have a few more days to prepare better for the next match."
Salma Amani, for her part, believes that by taking first place in the group, the first goal is achieved.
For the rest, the Lioness says that she expects a very complicated match from the quarter-finals.
"At the moment we can focus. We are keeping the World Cup in mind, but at the moment the goal is the African Cup of Nations (...) there will be pressure, but we will go there as always with the goal of winning".
For this edition, the four semi-finalists will qualify directly for the upcoming 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The match between Morocco and Botswana will be held on Wednesday at the Prince Moulay Abdallah Sports Complex in Rabat at 9:00 pm.
Morocco vs Botswana, it will be watched live on Arryadia, the third channel of SNRT Group, in its TNT HD version.