Roger De Sa has praised Morocco for his or her progress on the 2022 Fifa World Cup, however believes Senegal ought to have accomplished higher, even with out talisman Sadio Mane.
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Morocco surprised Spain on penalties within the World Cup final 16 on Tuesday, having already crushed Belgium en path to topping their group. The Atlas Lions will now face Portugal on Sunday within the quarterfinals.
De Sa has just lately returned from Qatar, the place he was an assistant coach to Carlos Queiroz with Iran, his aspect unable to make it out of the group phases, edged out of their closing group recreation by the USA.
The former Egypt assistant coach and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper coach is not shocked by Morocco’s progress, and regards Egypt’s win over them on the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, within the quarterfinals, as presumably his finest ever victory.
“If you got on a plane and went to Morocco, and went to see the set up that the federation have put in place there for the Morocco national team, and the amount of money spent, you wouldn’t be surprised at all (that they have got this far),” De Sa informed Phakaaathi on Wednesday.
“They have a football centre that is up there with anywhere else in the world. They have really focussed on the development of players and their national team …, so I am not surprised.”
The Mohammed VI Soccer Complex was just lately redeveloped at a price of round US$60 million, whereas the Atlas Lions are additionally benefitted from the expertise gained by an distinctive technology of gamers – the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Achraf Hakimi, Romain Saiss and Sofyan Amrabat all star in prime European leagues.
“We played them at the Africa Cup of Nations (earlier this year) and we beat them with Egypt, that has to be one of my best victories ever,” added the previous Orlando Pirates and Bidvest Wits head coach.
“That’s because of the quality of their national team, they have so many players playing in the top leagues and not just in squads, actually playing. So I am not surprised Morocco are the leaders of the African challenge (in Qatar).”
De Sa was not so variety to the Teranga Lions of Senegal, though they reached the final 16, Aliou Cisse’s aspect dropping 3-0 to England on Sunday.
“Senegal should have done better,” he mentioned.
“Without Mane it was difficult but if you look at the Senegal team, they had 12 or 13 players from the Uefa Champions League and they had the same coach for eight years. They have top players from all over the world, so I was disappointed with Senegal.”
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