The long awaited 34th edition of the Africa cup of nations in Cote d’ivoire will kick off on the 13th of January, and Morocco has intensified training as they set eyes on a second Continental title.
The Atlas Lions of Morocco head into the AFCON as the highest ranked African team in the world (13th) and have been tipped as one of the favorites to win the competition after an impressive outing at the world cup, where they surprisingly made it to the Semi final, the first by any African team.
Morocco have made 20 appearances at the Nation’s cup, first in 1972 but have won the AFCON just once in 1976 when Ethiopia hosted the competition.
The competition was played with just 8 teams at the time, so there were only two groups, Group A and Group B.
Morocco were placed in the same group B as Nigeria, but it was the Atlas Lions that topped the group with an unbeaten record.The Super Eagles’ finished second with their only defeat a 3-1 defeat to Morocco.
Two teams qualified from each group and they played a round robin format to determine the winner, instead of using the Semi final format, and the competition was the last to use this format.
In the round robin Morocco defeated Nigeria again 2-1 and they won two,draw one of their games to win the competition.Meaning they were unbeaten in Six enroute lifting the title.
Last edition they were ousted by Egypt in the Quarter Final.
On current form, Morocco led by Walid Ragragui have lost only one of their last Eight games, their only defeat was a 2-1 loss to South Africa.
KEY PLAYERS
Manchester United’s Sofyan Amrabet, Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain) Sevilla’s forward Youssef En-Nesyri, two Betis forward Abde Ezzalzouli and defender Chadi Riad, PSV Eindhoven’s forward Ismael Saibari.
Former Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bono (Al Hilal) Galatasaray’s Hakim Ziyech and Bayern Munich’s Noussair Mazraoui.
Morocco will face Taifa stars of Tanzania in their opening match in the competition.