Reynald Pedros is looking forward to a ‘special’ game at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 when his team, Morocco battle his native, France in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
Pedros who won the Best FIFA Women’s Coach of Year in 2018, steered the Atlas Lionesses to their maiden appearance at the Women’s World Cup after they finished as runners-up at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations home soil.
The Atlas Lionesses sealed historic qualification for the knockout stage after they beating Colombia and South Korea to qualify at the expense of Germany in Group H.
Tuesday’s encounter at the Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide would reunite Pedros with some familiar faces he worked with during his coaching stint with Lyon Women but he is raring to create more history with the North Africans.
“It’s true that this is a special game because I am French, but my heart is with Morocco,” Pedros said in a press conference on Monday.
“It has been three years in which we have been working hard to get to these incredible objectives. And, here we are! We realized that with this (Moroccan) Federation and this team who are fantastic. I really love Morocco.
It’s a country that I have discovered. I live there very happily. I am very happy to be training the girls there. And today, it’s not a problem for me to win against France. I will do everything for us to qualify to the quarterfinals, but of course, we will see what happens at the end of the game. Of course it’s a special game, but for me, it will be a win for Morocco.’
Morocco started their debut Women’s World Cup campaign with a heavy 6-0 defeat to Germany in Group G, after citing the mistake in th.
The French coach said Les Bleues are favourities for the match but his team will not go down without a fight.
“France are the favourites for tomorrow, but so were Colombia and South Korea.” he continued. “I think we must not do the same mistakes we did against Germany. We must not hold back, because that makes us make mistakes.
“We need to give the same mindset that we had against Colombia and South Korea. We need to be quite aggressive and difficult to manage. So, we need to make things difficult for France so that we can gain a bit of confidence and maybe score, who knows!
“They may lose a bit of their confidence. But, for us what is important tomorrow is to be very together, very attentive and very efficient. At the end, if France were stronger then it is what it is. But, we are going to do our best in order to qualify.”
