Regragui Proud Of Morocco Despite Falling Short Against France

France advanced to their second straight World Cup final after defeating their African counterparts 2-0 at the Al Bayt Stadium on Wednesday.

Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani got on the scoresheet for Didier Deschamps' men, who will meet Argentina at the Lusail Iconic stadium in Sunday's final.

Morocco will meet Croatia in the third place play-off a day earlier after becoming the first African side to make the World Cup semi finals.

The Atlas Lions saw off the likes of Belgium, Spain and Portugal to make it this far and Regragui has no qualms about the application of his players.

"We realised we made a great achievement already, we know that the media supported us and on the TV, we saw how proud everyone was," he said at his post-match press conference. 

"We are disappointed, we wanted to keep the Moroccan people's dream alive. We are going to have to digest this defeat. We are pleased with what we have achieved, but we felt we could have gone even further.

"The small details help real champions win. We saw this against France, they had a lot of substitutes to make a difference.

"I told the players I am proud of them, the whole of Morocco is proud of them and so is the world. We worked hard; played honest football and that is what we wanted to do.

"We gave a good image of Morocco and Africa, representing our country and our continent. We went as far as we could in the competition and that is great, but we are going to have to do even better in the future.

"We have to do that regularly if we want to be on the footballing map. We may not be as good as Spain, Brazil or England, but I want to qualify for every competition.

"Then, it will become normal for Morocco to be a presence. We have shown Africans we are capable of going toe-to-toe with the best."