Big gun Morocco cautious ahead of AFCON opener
Morocco coach Walid Regragui feels there's a target on his side's back at the Africa Cup of Nations after its inspiring run to the FIFA World Cup semi-finals in 2022.
The Atlas Lions begin its AFCON 2023 campaign on Thursday (AEDT) with a Group F clash against Tanzania, a team ranked No.121 in the FIFA rankings, and certainly not one Morocco will want to slip up against, given it is ranked No.13, the highest FIFA ranking of all particpiating nations playing in Cote d'Ivoire.
Morocco became the first Arab and African country to reach a FIFA World Cup semi-final at Qatar 2022, increasing the pressure to take that form into the Africa Cup of Nations.
But Regragui will be cautious of talking things up, given the nation's history of crashing out unexpectedly having been cast as a favourite.
Morocco is one of 12 countries in the 24-team field with a tournament win, but that came almost a half century ago in 1976.
This is Tanzania’s third appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations after previous particpiations in 1980 and 2019. It finished bottom of its group on both occasions, losing five of its six matches and drawing one, so a win has still yet to be achieved.
That won't be easy against a star-packed Morocco outfit, especially given Tanzania hasn't kept a clean sheet in across all its AFCON matches.
Only Zimbabwe (15), Mozambique (12) and Namibia (9) have played more matches in the competition without a clean sheet, and Tanzania scored the fewest goals of all 24 teams during the qualifiers – three in six matches.
