Morocco Team News, Updates & Facts
Morocco Team News
Caen’s 21-year-old midfielder Youssef Ait Bennasser has overcome injury to make Morocco’s final 23-man squad for the World Cup. He was a big doubt after missing Morocco’s friendlies in March before suffering another injury setback that kept him out of action until the start of May. Real Madrid teenager Achraf Hakimi is also fit again after missing those March friendlies, but Zouhair Feddal misses out with a ruptured Achilles. Three domestic-based players are included, including Ayoub El Kaabi, the RS Berkane striker who played his way into contention with nine goals in the African Nations Championship for domestic-based players. His inclusion means Malaga striker Youssef En-Nesyri misses out, while an appeal by Alaves’ Barcelona loanee Munir El Haddadi – who made a single competitive appearance for Spain – to switch nationalities was rejected.
Morocco Key Players
Morocco’s success in qualifying was based on their defence, where Juventus man Medhi Benatia leads the side. He boasts more than 50 Morocco caps, while his league titles and Champions League experience with first Bayern Munich and now Juventus makes him one of Morocco’s most successful exports.
Further forward, Ajax winger Hakim Ziyech scored one and set one up in the defeat of Serbia in March, to take him to eight goals from his first 15 caps. He has enjoyed another decent season domestically too, featuring heavily in Ajax’s successful bid for Champions League qualification.
Morocco Team Form
WWDWW
Whether you include the African Nations Championship for domestic-based players or not, Morocco are in superb form. Their ‘full’ squad have won friendlies against South Korea, Serbia and Uzbekistan alongside sealing qualification for the World Cup without conceding a goal. In March’s back-to-back friendlies, they beat Serbia 2-1 in Turin, before a 2-0 home win against Uzbekistan. Their winning streak was ended by a goalless draw with Ukraine in Geneva but they got back to winning ways thanks to Younes Belhanda’s winner in a 2-1 defeat of Slovakia, before a 3-1 win in Estonia – Belhanda, Hakim Ziyech and Youssef En-Nesyri scoring.
Morocco Preliminary World Cup 2018 squad
Goalkeepers
1 – Yassine Bounou (Girona) – Age 27 – 11 caps/0 goals
12 – Munir Mohamedi (Numancia) – Age 29 – 27 caps/0 goals
22 – Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti (IR Tanger) – Age 22 – 2 caps/0 goals
Defenders
2 – Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid) – Age 19 – 10 caps/1 goal
3 – Hamza Mendyl (Lille) – Age 20 – 13 caps/0 goals
4 – Manuel da Costa (Istanbul Basaksehir) – Age 32 – 28 caps/1 goal
5 – Medhi Benatia (Juventus) – Age 31 – 57 caps/2 goals
6 – Romain Saiss (Wolves) – Age 28 – 24 caps/1 goal
17 – Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce) – Age 32 – 34 caps/3 goals
Midfielders
7 – Hakim Ziyech (Ajax) – Age 25 – 18 caps/9 goals
8 – Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord) – Age 33 – 51 caps/1 goal
10 – Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray) – Age 28 – 47 caps/5 goals
11 – Faycal Fajr (Getafe) – Age 29 – 23 caps/2 goals
14 – Mbark Boussoufa (Al-Jazira) – Age 33 – 59 caps/7 goals
15 – Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen) – Age 21 – 14 caps/0 goals
16 – Nordin Amrabat (Leganes) – Age 31 – 44 caps/4 goals
18 – Amine Harit (Schalke 04) – Age 20 – 6 caps/0 goals
19 – Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez (Standard Liege) – Age 28 – 20 caps/1 goal
21 – Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord) – Age 21 – 6 caps/0 goals
Forwards
9 – Ayoub El Kaabi (RS Berkane) – Age 24 – 10 caps/11 goals
13 – Khalid Boutaib (Yeni Malatyaspor) – Age 31 – 18 caps/7 goals
20 – Aziz Bouhaddouz (St Pauli) – Age 31 – 15 caps/3 goals
23 – Youssef En-Nesyri (Malaga) – Age 21 – 16 caps/2 goals