{"id":1263803,"date":"2022-12-10T12:44:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T12:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/10\/we-have-all-africa-and-arabia-behind-us\/"},"modified":"2022-12-10T12:44:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T12:44:20","slug":"we-have-all-africa-and-arabia-behind-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/10\/we-have-all-africa-and-arabia-behind-us\/","title":{"rendered":"We have all Africa and Arabia behind us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Regragui-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"Walid Regragui\" title=\"Walid Regragui\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walid Regragui<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Morocco coach Walid Regragui says his side feels the support of all African and Arabic people as they aim to make World Cup history.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco could be the first African nation to reach the semi-finals if they beat Portugal on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>They are also the only majority Islamic nation left in Qatar, the first Arabian country to host the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have Africa behind us and Arabic people,\u201d said Regragui.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s important, but we are playing first for Morocco.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reaching the quarter-finals marks a best-ever performance at the World Cup for Morocco. The country had only once previously progressed to the knockout stages, on their debut in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Regragui said his team were well aware of the impact of their success, with the nation\u2019s official airline laying on seven additional flights from Morocco to Qatar in order for more fans to attend the biggest football match in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m proud of my country and my team,\u201d added Regragui. \u201cYou feel the positive vibe and everyone is acting like we are all part of the same family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are identifying with us and we are uniting Moroccan people. That is more important than money and titles, but we are here to win games and go as far as we can in this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regragui said he would be quite happy not to see Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s name on the teamsheet despite Portugal\u2019s impressive\u00a06-1 win over Switzerland\u00a0in the round of 16 without him.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo was benched with his replacement, Goncalo Ramos, scoring a stunning hat-trick.<\/p>\n<p>Regragui said: \u201cWe have respect for Portugal, they have great strikers. But they know we will be a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are used to playing elite teams. We have a plan and we will try to pull off a surprise, but we need to focus on us and getting better as the match goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"MYqe6Yt7s-w\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Struggle for Water: Chanzini residents appeal for help to get access to potable water (9-12-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MYqe6Yt7s-w?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walid Regragui Morocco coach Walid Regragui says his side feels the support of all African and Arabic people as they aim to make World Cup history. Morocco could be the first African nation to reach the semi-finals if they beat Portugal on Saturday. They are also the only majority Islamic nation left in Qatar, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1263804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[671,13443],"class_list":["post-1263803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-arabia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}