Topic: Africa Football Discussion Thread || Current discussion: World Cup Groups. - page 3. (Read 13691 times)

Senegal team was considered as the only strong team in Africa in this World Cup. Had Sadio Mane not been injured, we might have seen a better performance from Senegal. Even then, Senegal performed well enough without Sadio Mane.
Morocco's performance in this World Cup has surprised everyone. No one expected Morocco to qualify for the semi-finals. Their gameplay and team work is amazing. I think Morocco has a chance to win today's match against Croatia. But there is no doubt that the match will be competitive.

I have to say that this World Cup has been full of amazing matches and upsets. I really did not expect the African and Asian teams to be playing this well at this level of football. On the contrary the European teams kind of disappointed me not gonna lie. If someone had told me that we would be having a Morocco versus Croatia in the third-place match I would certainly not believe him but we are now seeing it and it is what it is. I think that they should be a sign for FIFA that they should try to invest more in the African teams as it seems like they have really good potential to be one of the best.

I agree that Morocco is a very good team, but I would not be so sure of their victory today.
Croatia also played very well in this tournament and defeated the strongest team and the first favorite of the tournament, Brazil.
The only worse game they played was against Argentina, when they didn't have enough concentration in defense, like in the previous games.
In the group, Morocco and Croatia played without goals, but this will be a completely different game.
Both teams are tired after 6 games in a very short time and some players will not be able to play today due to injuries.
I think we can expect a very uncertain game with likely extra time and penalties.

I think the African nations are getting better and improving immensely. In the old days it was even more difficult to get this far in a world cup competition but now things are a lot better. I think there is hope for a better future for the African nations. Senegal, Ghana and now Morocco have shown that it is possible, hopefully Nigeria will be part of this list in the near future. I hope Morocco can make history against Croatia tomorrow, it will be so exciting to witness Morocco finish 2nd runner up in the 2022 world cup.

Morocco will once again write history by gaining third position in today's match and title of first African country to be at 3rd in fifa world cup. They will do their best to win this game . Morocco game is amazing they play with so much confidence and energy everybody enjoys that.

The Moroccan team has displayed grit and resilience through out the tournament. These quality has been key in pushing them through their games with Belgium and the others. And we are going to see it displayed once again in today's game against Croatia. Anyone who thinks they'll lose is dead wrong. I predict that Morocco will beat Croatia by 2 goals to 1. I am hoping to see Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi in the scoreboard. Congratulations to them. Congratulations to Africa and congratulations to the Arab world.

Same here, I never expected such brilliant performances by the African team. Although many of them started poorly like Argentina, but they met up later and made the continent proud. Morocco is now a role model in the African team, they have even been given the opportunity to host the club's world cup of 2023, which is part of what they did on the pitch apportioned to them.

I hope their performance in this year's world cup is not a mistake. If they could replicate it in the next world cup, then Africa is going somewhere in the history of football.

The Moroccan team's strength is their defense and not the attack. Scoring early or first builds the confidence of a defensive team because they can put in everything to defend their lead. From few of their matches, the Atlas Lions won some of the matches they scored first. I totally agree that the early goal was a big setback to the team because it disorganized them to some extent. The injury of Romain Saiss also contributed to the loss, this is because the Moroccan captain is a formidable force in the watertight defensive structure of the Atlas Lions.

African is expecting to win their first ever medal in the world cup through Morocco. The last match between Morocco and Croatia ended in a goalless draw. Croatia might not value the bronze as the Moroccan side because they have even clinched the silver medal but this match in Khalifa International Stadium means a lot to Africa and the entre Arab world.       

From the group stage it's when i noticed that Ghana and Senegal is not going anywhere, because their performance was extremely poor, the country of Africa i expected that will perfect well was Cameroon, because they were playing well likewise Morocco, even i could not believe that Morocco will win Portugal because of the almighty Ronald, out of surprise Morocco defeated Portugal and face France that made them to get to this stage, so the match between Croatia and Morocco is going to tough and it's unpredictable from my reasoning, because both teams are very strong.

I was also one of the first people who didn't put any hope that any African team would make it through the group stage, for me at that time I just thought that we Africans wouldn't be able to get that far because I was based on the design that our African teams had over time of African Cup of Nations in which they didn't score many goals, so I saw the Africans also not managing to score many goals in that world cup, but I was very surprised when I saw that the African teams were surprisingly managing to score many goals and were having good defense, the teams Africans were playing equally with most teams, our biggest mistake was in attack, and that is something that Africans need to correct. we always make the same mistake of wasting opportunities to score a goal and that costs us a lot, I think croatia is the favorite team to win this game, precisely because morocco doesn't have a good attack


as I commented before, the biggest problem for our African teams is precisely that we waste many opportunities when it comes to scoring goals, if we want to win the World Cup one day then we need to have a African Cup of Nations that has many goals, we need to have teams with strikers who score a lot of goals, people who when they go to play against big teams in europe manage to score a lot of goals, that's the only way we can win the world cup one day

The early goal was a setback for the Moroccan team but lets be factual, the French team were just too tough for the Moroccan team. They played well in the match but France have a very formidable attack too good to break through the Moroccan defense opening them up and created good chances to get two goals in the game. Morocco had some good chances too but were unable to find the back of the net but in the end I am proud of this Moroccan team for their confidence and professionalism through out the competition.

African teams have always been underrated because of their inability to lift the world cup trophy so it's not a new thing if no one expected the African teams to get to this point. I was expecting Senegal and Ghane to get to the knockout stage but the injury of Mane deter a lot of fans including me who were expecting a good performance from Senegal here we are today celebrating the progress of Morocco who did not just make it to the knock out stage but went ahead to reach the semifinals with a brilliant display in the field of play.

The possibility of Morocco winning against the Croatian team tomorrow is high because following their performance in the competition I don't see Croatia who was poor in performance against Argentina defeating them but even though they lose tomorrow the money is nothing to be compared with the honor and pride they have given Africa but I believe Morocco will win tomorrow against Croatia.

The biggest achievements the Moroccans will receive after bonus is that many top clubs will come for them. ONuahi is already been scouted by Barcelona, Amrabat is scouted by Epl teams and Bono is on the radar of Bayern Munich to replace Injured Neuer. Hakimi Zyche might have also resonated his career with his World Cup performance, many top clubs will be lying around for his signature sooner. So it is a win win for Morocco.


Its actually the club World Cup that will be hosted there. It was like a compensation for them after they got there bill to host 2026 World rejected four years ago

This is absolutely certain for sure, they Moroccan players have not just made their country and the whole of Africa proud alone, they have also earned better standing for themselves and have upgraded their worth in the world of football, like you said, after the world is over, Moroccan players are gonna be sort after by EPL clubs.

And to add to it all, I was also reading a news this evening stating that fifa has picked Morocco to host 2023 world cup, this is a great achievement for the country and Africa at large
https://punchng.com/fifa-picks-morocco-to-host-2023-club-world-cup/?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social

I think that despite the fact that most of the players of the Moroccan national team do not play in top clubs like Ziyech, Hakimi or Mazraoui and the financial aspect is significant for them, the main achievement will be that they have gone so far in this prestigious tournament and apparently set a high bar for all African teams. In general, the players are wealthy people and after this tournament, many of them will receive better offers than they have now.

Well, it wasn't enough for Ghana, it's a pity, because I know what the Captain of Ghana has fought to get through, but they found Uruguay who put all the "Garra Charrúa" on him and boy did they win forcefully, sometimes the Tiredness can wreak havoc on what you want.

On the other hand, I would like to acknowledge the great effort of the African teams in this World Cup, they did not show a low level of football, quite the contrary, what is missing is more training, but they are about to be at the highest level of world football, I think If he continues this work for the next World Cup, they will all go to the round of 16.


I'm just saying something, nothing is impossible, what Morocco has achieved is worthy of being a champion, if they maintain their conviction in having that futuristic and positive vision they can win third place, if Croatia is one of the strongest teams in the world. They came to these instances for a reason, but Morocco is also competing for this position and that means that they have the right level to be competing in the World Cup and be able to reach that place, which is not bad at all. I sincerely would like Morocco to win, because they are an African team that has been an example and they really deserve to get to third place, hence what they can achieve is already a gain, and I am very happy for the whole African continent.

LOL..... It's a good thing to finally see how far they've come and it'll go down over the years of our Moroccan brothers being the first African side to get to this level and if they also win the third runner's up, I'll be so much glad.
I agree with you, if I was to see one of the African side's coming this far , it would have been Senegalese National Team and Cameroon honestly, but Morocco inspite of the odds shocked the World, won two European giants and came to this level not by luck but by team work and hard work.

Congratulations to Morocco once again..... Gutted they're not in the finals but reaching this far gladdens me heart. 💪🏿🖤

I was never in doubt of Africa causing a shocker at the years world cup, I actually thought Senegal will be the one to achieved what Morocco has achieved so far but immediately there was report of Sadio Mane been injury I knew they can't go far, I was even surprised they made it out of the group staged. Sadio Mane is a very important figure in the Senegalese team that his absence was definitely going be felt and that was the case. Now to Morocco, they almost angered us after routing for them.

There were reports of their players and fans saying they were playing for the Arabic nations and not African. I didn't take it to heart though as I still wanted them to make history which they did, now all is left is to defeat Croatia and achieved that 3rd position which no African teams has ever achieved. Atleast with that achievement people won't underate African teams at the tournament again and come 2026 with Africa having a possibility of 11 representative, we can definitely caused more shocker and probably win the tournament (yes it's possible) because we'll be having all strength at the tournament.

LOL.. when I first saw this thread, not even in my wildest dreams I imagined that it will stay alive up to the very end of the competition. To be fair, I wasn't expecting any of the African teams to progress from the group stage. And now we have Morocco who will play tomorrow against Croatia for the 3rd place. And it is going to benefit them financially as well. If they end up with the 3rd price, they will receive $27 million. Even in case they lose, there is no need to get disappointed. The fourth placed team will be getting $25 million from the FIFA.

I don’t think Morocco will be sad or anything like that. Because they have achieved more than what they imagined in my opinion. And a big problem was some of the players were carrying injuries in this match for Morocco. Otherwise, I think this match could have been close. I know a lot of people are going to look at the statistics and say that this was a close match, but that is not a correct statement. France was quite happy to play in this match. They did not have to face too many difficulties except for certain periods when Morocco was attacking well.  At least I did not expect Morocco to go this far in the tournament. I think we expected that France going to win this match. But it was not as one-sided as many of us thought it would be.