Morocco enters the competition this evening in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The Atlas Lions have an appointment in Tanzania for a difficult trip.
Having barely closed the beautiful chapter of the 2022 World Cup, the Moroccans must return to current affairs. They begin their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup this evening with a perilous trip to Tanzania. After the historic semi-final in Qatar, the Atlas Lions must live up to their status. They have not yet played a match in these qualifiers, nor in this international break, because their first match against Eritrea was canceled due to the withdrawal of the Eritrean selection for these qualifiers. For their part, the Tanzanians got their campaign off to a perfect start by beating Niger on Saturday (1-0), in Marrakech. But Morocco’s toughest opponent in this group will certainly be Zambia.
These qualifiers leave no room for any missteps: only one direct ticket for the world championship is distributed in each group. Morocco must therefore finish at the top of its group: if it finishes in 2nd place, it is not even guaranteed to be qualified for the World Cup play-offs, because only the 4 best second places (out of 9 groups) will participate. . We would then have to win a semi-final then a play-off final, to then play a new qualifying match against a team from another continent.
Fortunately, Walid Regragui will be able to count on all his strong men for this difficult trip, with the return of Nayef Aguerd, recovered from his ankle injury and back in training since the end of last week. It will also be an opportunity to celebrate the first selection of Sofiane Diop, OGC Nice player and former French Espoirs international, who should play this evening.
The Tanzania-Morocco match will kick off this Tuesday, November 21 at 8:00 p.m. (French and Moroccan time) at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.
The Tanzania-Morocco match will be followed live in streaming on the L’Equipe website, via Espace TV. The match will be broadcast on the L’Equipe live 3 channel.
The official lineups have not yet been announced, here are the probable lineups: