One day after two the worst remaining sides in the World Cup they started the knockout stage of the championship in Los Angeles, two of the top 10 will face each other in Mexico and advance to the top 16 stage.
No wonder then that Mohamed Ouahbi, Morocco’s head coach, said the 48-team format was “not good”.
Having not lost in three group games, including a draw with Brazil, Morocco’s gift is to meet the Netherlands, a match that pits the sixth and seventh ranked teams in the world against each other in Monterrey for a match that will start at 9pm on Tuesday, Hong Kong time.
“Other big teams face small fry,” one Moroccan journalist complained at a press conference where there was standing room only when Ouahbi and his goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou, sat down.
One of the most anticipated second-round matches for 30 years to the day was the Dutch side under current coach Ronald Koeman beat Morocco 2-1 in a World Cup group game, when anything other than that result would have qualified as a surprise.
Today’s Morocco is a more competitive and talented proposition. This competition, in the words of Bounou, is a “clash of titans”, given additional links and close ties between countries.
