The statement by Walid Reragui, the Morocco coach, reviewed the game against Portugal, scheduled for 3pm on Saturday and counting the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

Do you feel support from the mainland? “I am proud. So is my country. We have our people, our religion and the first Arab-African team in the quarter-finals. We are feeling that positive energy. We have the continent supporting us, not just our country. We will play for our country, our country.”

United Morocco. Are you looking forward to having this role? “The national team has to be the flag bearer. Our goal is to win every game and we have to try to unify Morocco around a project. That is more valuable than money, than titles. We must not stop, we are here to go.” the farthest possible. The longer we stay the better. We will strive to make progress. There’s no point in thinking about the positives, what we’ve done. We are trying to make sure that we are hungry for more. Some have analyzed all the data from possession, on average and Spain is the favourite. And we escaped.”

Arabs do not train in Europe: “Why don’t clubs hire Arab coaches? Barcelona and Manchester City won’t hire Arabs now. What can happen. Place of birth, politics, religion doesn’t matter. I want to change mentality. Skill is the most important.” important things and there are many who can be successful in Europe. I told the president that I would take Morocco to the World Cup and then you can see why things can go wrong here.”

Small ball against Spain? “We watched Spain’s last 20 games and realized that it is impossible to have more possession than them. Why do we have to have more possession? Why do we have to play well and cry because we lost? Yes, we need to have more possession, but we played our strength and we have our plan.”

positive pressure: “It’s the fourth time an African team has come this far, but it’s positive pressure. We have our focus, we played well. We beat Spain, which is the team that makes you run the most, we faced Belgium, Croatia and Canada, which are the teams North America is the best. We have the whole continent behind us, the Arab world is also with us. We are outsiders, we know our strengths, but we must not be blown away. We have to have the intensity that we always show. Portugal will try to finish the game as quickly as possible. African teams have made great progress, we are investing in football and outsiders are needed to break the paradigm, to change the mentality. If we believe that anything is possible, we need to prove that everyone can win. That is our goal at We are not a soft team, our progress is not accidental and we will create danger.”