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The irreducible Morocco or the best defense since Germany 2006
Doha, 11 Dec (EFE) semi-finals for the history of the team and of Africa, which for the first time presents its continent on the penultimate step towards the title, with a defensive steadfastness admired and unequaled since the days of Italy, world champion in Germany in 2006. Since then, no semi-finalist had gone this far with as few goals conceded as Morocco. Neither France champions Russia 2018 nor Germany reigning Brazil 2014 nor Spain conquering the world South Africa 2010. In all of them, each of the four teams reached that instance with more goals conceded than the current team Moroccan, but also each of the 32 competitors of those editions. There was no one with the same defensive records from Italy as Marcello Lippi, world champion in 2006, with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, defenders Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazi or Gianluca Zambrotta, midfielders Gennaro Gattuso or Mauro Camoranesi and the impressive technical qualities of Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro del Piero and Francesco Totti, or from Portugal, which at the time was also a semi-finalist, with the debut of Cristiano Ronaldo and with Luis Figo, Ricardo Carvalho, Tiago Mendes… from Mexico 1986, only those two teams plus finalist Germany from Japan and Korea 2002 with Oliver Khan as goalkeeper and Miroslav Klose as top scorer; France, world champions in 1998 led by Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps or Marcel Desailly and Italy which finished third at the World Cup in their home country in 1990 with Walter Zenga, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini or Roberto Donadoni, without many cons or Nella group stage, neither the round of 16 nor the quarter-finals, they had reached the semi-finals with only one goal conceded, as Morocco has now done. “The ‘Rocky Balboa’ of this World Cup”, as defined by Walid Regragui, the invincible coach who pushed the Moroccan team to unthinkable heights in the two and a half months since he made his debut on the bench in a 2-0 win against Chile, they don’t take as many hits as the famous boxer in the 1976 film saga, they protect themselves, avoid them, frustrate every rival, to whom they give the ball and wait for it, not only to defend themselves, but to play, attack and propose at breakneck speed. Fearless. With impressive determination. ONLY ONE GOAL AGAINST… AND ONE OWN GOAL Only one goal against in five matches, 480 minutes or eight hours of play, including overtime against Spain, evidenced by the elimination of Luis Enrique Martínez’s team, before the group of 16; because then they did it against Portugal, in the quarter-finals, and because they first overcame Croatia (currently runners-up in the world, now in the quarter-finals), Belgium and Canada, which was the best team in the CONCACAF qualifying phase. There are three wins and two draws. “It’s not a miracle, it’s the result of hard work,” remarked the coach, constantly moving from the bench during each game, in every order he gives to his players, who respond perfectly on the pitch to the plan drawn by him on the scoreboard , within a compact block, with defence, midfield and attack so close together that they hardly leave room for play between the lines of any rivals, no matter how hard Joao Félix or Bruno Fernandes tried with Portugal. Or Pedri and Gavi, with Spain. Morocco was not the same against these two powerhouses as it was in the first stage, matched by their only goal against, an own goal by Nayef Aguerd, one of their most important centre-backs, with no minutes against Portugal through injury. His teammate in central defense also ended up injured in all the duels: Romain Saiss, with a bandage on his thigh since the start of the match and who couldn’t take it anymore in the 57th minute, when he remained on the clay court, asked a stretcher and left the field. AN INDEPENDENT STRUCTURE FOR ITS RIVALS Possession of him always corresponded to his rival. He has already done it against Croatia (32 percent), when he only received two shots; Belgium (32 percent), when they put together four shots between their three sticks and Canada (36 percent), when they conceded their only goal in an own goal, with none from their rival in the whole game, but more emphatically, thanks also to the qualities of the rival, when he went through that phase towards the playoffs. Against Spain and against Portugal, Morocco’s ball possession was identical: 22%. That doesn’t mean I give up on attacking. Not to play. The African team almost always focuses on the ball exiting from behind, with the intervention and decisive role that Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bono has in that facet, but with a transition at full speed, vertical, almost without pauses. Thus he did damage to Spain and Portugal, which he didn’t even allow space for the imagination, always under pressure as soon as a pass passed the first line of resistance, always in the central block (32 per cent against the Portuguese and 33 per cent against the Spaniards of the time without ball possession) or low (39 per cent against Spain and 34 per cent against Portugal). Over 60 percent in both cases the ball belongs to the rival and is waiting for him on his own turf. The quarter-final match against Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Félix and company has even more merit, as it came from a three-day extension against Spain and due to the number of players who had difficulty putting together their lineup. Aguerd did not play nor did Saiss last the whole game, the most starting centre-backs, but neither did Sofyan Amrabat (he left the stadium with ice on his knee), Achraf Hakimi, Hakim Ziyech, Azzedine Ounahi, Youssef En Nesyri and Sofiane Boufal, all the titles to make history. “All the players put in a fantastic performance, there were injured, tired, but everyone on the pitch gave their best. We showed we can face any team in the world and perform miracles,” said Bono, the best player of the match of the quarterfinals against Portugal, as it was in the round of 16 against Spain, to the worldwide amazement aroused by the boys led by Regragui, unbeaten in eight games under the orders of the coach. Iñaki Dufour id/jag (c) Agencia EFE
