Morocco boss Walid Regragui has praised Hakim Ziyech’s Man-of-the-Match efficiency in opposition to Belgium on Sunday and defined goalkeeper Bono’s curious disappearance simply earlier than kick-off.
The African aspect struck twice late on via Abdelhamid Sabiri and Zakaria Aboukhlal to tug off one of many shocks of the World Cup thus far, with Belgium having been ranked quantity two on this planet in keeping with FIFA’s rankings.
Though he didn't get on the scoresheet, Chelsea winger Ziyech was a livewire all through the match, having a objective disallowed for offside within the first half earlier than organising Aboukhlal’s late strike with a beautiful dribble and cross.
Ziyech had fallen out with earlier Morocco boss Vahid Halilhodzic and been ostracised from the group, however he returned to the fold below Regragui and has absolutely vindicated his place within the aspect in keeping with his supervisor.
‘ this man, he's unbelievable,’ stated Regragui at his post-match press convention.
‘The spirit, when he got here again into the nationwide group, it got here again. What lots of people say about him is that he’s a loopy man, a tough man to handle, he can’t assist the group.
‘However for me what I see is that while you give him love and confidence, he can die for you. And that's what I give him.
‘And he returned to me my confidence and the boldness of the followers of Morocco, as a result of lots of followers of Morocco needed Hakim to come back again into the group and he knew that.
‘However he’s a key participant, the identical with Sofiane [Boufal], and when you will have these gamers on the sector – the identical with Achraf [Hakimi] and [Noussair] Mazraoui – it’s a special group, full of massive gamers, enjoying in huge groups in Europe.
‘And also you see he [Ziyech] is a special participant with the nationwide group. He’s our chief. The position of the coach is to provide him confidence, the identical with the employees.’
One huge participant who was not on the sector in opposition to Belgium was goalkeeper Yassine ‘Bono’ Bounou, who walked out with the group, sung the nationwide anthem after which disappeared down the tunnel earlier than kick-off.
It took BBC’s commentators 38 minutes to note, however the Sevilla shot-stopper was changed within the beginning line-up on the final minute with Munir Mohamedi coming in as an alternative.
Explaining what occurred with Bono, Regragui instructed beIN Sports activities: ‘He took a whack in opposition to Croatia, he was unsteady.
‘We tried till the final second however after the warm-up, simply earlier than the match, he didn't really feel good and he had the honesty to provide method to another person. If you wish to be in my squad it's a must to be 100% and Yassine understood that and gave up his place to Munir, who had an amazing recreation.’
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