The Japan Times - Morocco under huge pressure as hosts face Cup of Nations heat

The tournament for Walid Regragui's side will be seen as a failure unless they go all the way to the final on January 18 and lift the trophy, and the question is how they cope with that level of expectation in the coming days.

Moroccan supporters demand the best from Africa's top-ranked nation but are not convinced by what they have seen so far at this Cup of Nations.

The Atlas Lions beat minnows Comoros 2-0 in the opening match on December 21 before a 1-1 draw with Mali was greeted with jeers from the crowd.

"It is not normal for them to boo us. We want to have the supporters behind us," said captain Achraf Hakimi in a rallying cry before the final group game against Zambia.

"If the fans are behind us we can be champions of Africa together."

A 3-0 victory in that match may have eased some concerns around the football-mad nation of almost 40 million people, but the manner in which they beat rank outsiders Tanzania in the last 16 was hardly reassuring.

Morocco, who lie just above Italy in 11th place in the FIFA world rankings, required a Brahim Diaz goal in the second half to defeat a side who have never won a Cup of Nations match.

It was not what was expected from a team packed with talent including a core of players who featured on the historic run to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals.

But Regragui, a former Moroccan international as a player who was born and brought up in France, insists that winning is ultimately all that counts -- and his side are good at that, having put together a world-record run of 19 straight victories before the Mali stalemate.

- Substance over style -

"These are the kind of matches that in the past we would have somehow lost. We got through by the backdoor, but all that matters is that we qualified," the coach said after edging past Tanzania.

"I always remember because I grew up in France, that in 1998 when they won the World Cup, they needed a golden goal against Paraguay in the last 16, penalties to win in the quarter-finals, and then in the semi-finals they were losing against Croatia before their right-back (Lilian Thuram) who had never scored in his life got two goals."

Winning without turning on the style will not stop fans calling for Regragui to be replaced by Tarik Sektioui -- coach of the side that won the recent FIFA Arab Cup -- with the upcoming World Cup in mind.

But the 50-year-old Regragui just wants to get his hands on a trophy that Morocco have not won in exactly half a century.

The talent is there, with captain and African player of the year Achraf Hakimi fit again after an ankle injury.

Real Madrid winger Diaz and Olympiakos striker Ayoub El Kaabi have grabbed the headlines here, but Regragui has the kind of strength in depth that most coaches in Africa can only dream of.

And as the temperature rises around the Moroccan team -- despite this being the coldest weather seen at an AFCON in decades -- the big advantage for Cameroon, meanwhile, might be the lack of pressure on them.

The Indomitable Lions are five-time African champions but go into Friday's match in relaxed mood having been written off pre-tournament.

Reaching the last eight means that, for a team eliminated in the last 16 two years ago, their AFCON is already a success.

That is after a chaotic build-up in which football federation president and Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto'o sacked coach Marc Brys, replacing him with local trainer David Pagou.

"The objective when I took over was just to do better than last time because, let's be realistic, we didn't have very long when we started working with the team," Pagou said after beating South Africa in the last round.

K.Inoue--JT