Morocco’s women coach Reynald Pedros said his team are motivated to match the Atlas Lions’ semi-final feat at the Qatar 2022 World Cup when they make their debut appearance in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
The former Lyon Women’s coach said he has met his counterpart who manages Morocco’s men national team, Walid Regragui who shared the historic adventure in Qatar with him.
The Atlas Lionesses secured qualification for their first-ever Women’s World Cup after finishing as runners-up at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on home soil.
“We’ve had meetings with Walid where he’s told us about that epic World Cup adventure,” Pedros told FIFA website.
“He’s spoken to our players about everything to do with team spirit and all the things that allowed them to go and move mountains. It’s important to take inspiration from positive things and I think we needed Walid to come and explain all that.
“Our players were so proud and they want to go out and do the same kind of thing themselves. There’s nothing that’s impossible, but you need to have the ingredients to go and pull off something like that.”
Morocco are drawn against former world champions, Germany, Korea Republic and Colombia in Group H, but the French tactician believes their progress will be a result of their hard work starting from their first game on July 24.
The North Africans won two of their last six friendly games, while the last matches against Switzerland and Italy ended in a goalless draw.
Pedros continued: “By taking pride in representing Morocco. As I said to the girls, we’ll be ready for the first match against Germany and we’ll do what we can in the group phase to qualify for the last 16.
“Then it all comes down to how much work you put in. We know that Germany, Korea Republic and Colombia are happy to be playing Morocco.
“It’s up to us to show them that it’s not going to be that easy for them and that we’re going to give it our best shot to qualify. If we get it into our heads that we can do it, then we’ll be in a position to go and do just that.”
Pedros, however, has his sights on Group F which houses his native country, France and Brazil as he fancies the chances of facing either of the two heavyweights in the knockout stage.
“If we’re lucky enough to finish in the top two, we’ll come up against someone from Brazil and France’s group. I think I’ll take a look at them in case we do go through,” the two-time UEFA Women’s Champions League winning coach said.
“A place in the last 16 would be amazing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s against France, Brazil or anyone; it would be incredible. I’ll be keeping an eye on the results obviously, but nothing more than that to begin with because we want to focus on ourselves. We’ll be keeping an eye out, though.”
