Morocco might be underdogs for their last Women’s World Cup group match, where they need a convincing win over Colombia to stand any chance of progress, but coach Reynald Pedros is warning them not to write off his team.
Morocco suffered a rude welcome to their first ever World Cup when Germany thumped them 6-0 in their opening game in Melbourne but they bounced back to upset South Korea 1-0 in Adelaide in their next Group H encounter.
Colombia upset the Germans in their last match and head the standings on six points, with Germany and Morocco on three but Morocco with a minus five goal difference.
“To be sincere, the way they played against Germany they looked an opponent much stronger than us but I think there is a belief now that anything is possible,” said Pedros of the Colombians, who Morocco must beat by four goals to usurp in the standings, if Germany beat the Koreans in Brisbane at the same time.
“And then there is the magic of the World Cup. I think we’ve proven that we have the intensity necessary to achieve a victory. There are no boundaries, as we have already seen in many of the last group matches. So it’s up to us.
“We have a clear objective in this game and we’re are going to give everything to try and advance. We have little experience at this level and I think it would be exceptional to finish the group phase with six points. I think we’ve transformed all our expectations from negative to positive because we’ve already achieved something incredible,” he said of Morocco’s win over South Korea in their second game.
“Really, we have a spirit that is positive and there is really no reason we can’t get these three points.”
But if Morocco do not make it through to the knockout stage, Pedros feels they have made their mark.
“Womens’ football in Morocco has really expanded and advanced with an academy programme and a real professionalism, and over the last three years we’ve accelerated the progress of the team.
“We played a first ever final of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and thereby also qualify for this Women’s World Cup. We arrived here and won a game in our pool.
“But we must also take this step by step because we did not have an easy game against Germany and I don’t think Colombia will be easy either. It’s going to be an aggressive match with plenty of duels but, hey, we are ready … ready for a big international match, a match at a high level and even if Colombia beat Germany it is still just a football game and we have identified where we can make it difficult for them,” the coach added.
