Morocco coach Walid Regragui mentioned he believes an African staff will win the World Cup within the subsequent “15 to 20 years” after his staff completed fourth in Qatar. The Atlas Lions, who turned the primary African World Cup semi-finalists in historical past, misplaced Saturday’s third place play-off 2-1 in opposition to 2018 runners-up Croatia however captured the creativeness in Qatar. The subsequent World Cup in 2026, held throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico, can be expanded to 48 groups and Africa could have at the very least 9 slots – up from 5 at current.

“With nine participants, we’re going to learn. In 15, 20 years, I’m sure an African team will win the World Cup because we’ll have learned,” mentioned Regragui. “We have a stage to get past. We need to build on that, with hard work and desire. This DNA is not just being built for Morocco, but for the continent.”

Morocco completed prime of a gaggle together with Croatia and Belgium, who got here third on the 2018 World Cup, earlier than knocking out Spain and Portugal to achieve the final 4. Their run was ended within the semi-finals by defending champions France, however Regragui has urged his gamers to again up their historic show by profitable subsequent 12 months’s Africa Cup of Nations.

“I said to the players in the changing room, if you want to go down in history then you’re going to have to win the Africa Cup of Nations,” mentioned Regragui. “We need to dominate our continent.”

Morocco have been topped African champions simply as soon as, in 1976, however their performances on the World Cup demonstrated they’re a staff on the rise beneath Regragui, who was solely appointed in August. “Tomorrow morning we’ll take stock and all realise we’ve pulled off a fantastic achievement here. We’ve earned a great deal of experience in a short space of time,” mentioned Regragui.

“We’ve gone further than expected but it’s not enough. It needs to set an example for the future. I hope that everybody (in Africa) will learn from the experience.

“We’ve obtained a fantastic future forward of us and we’ll hold transferring ahead. Of course we’ve got the target of profitable the World Cup in the future. There’s going to be extra stress on us going ahead and hopefully there can be extra African groups following our instance.

“We’ve shown we can go toe to toe with top teams. Really very small details determine these games.”

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