CHAN: Sektioui credits Morocco’s ability to stick to game plan against DRC

Morocco coach Tarek Sektioui has admitted his players faced difficulties against DR Congo despite registering a 3-1 victory to book their place into the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) quarterfinals at Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday.

Coming into the game, the Atlas Lions and the Leopards, both two-time winners of CHAN, were tied on six points apiece, while Kenya held a slim advantage with seven points. Morocco needed a draw to advance, while DR Congo had to win to keep their qualification to the knockout stages alive.

“DR Congo were a very difficult side especially in the first half. They were very well organised and we found it hard to break their backline,” said Sektioui as quoted by CAFOnline.com.

“But we kept pushing and keeping to our game plan which was to try and exploit their two central defenders because we noticed they lacked the balance. We did it a bit better in the second half where we exploited the spaces they left behind and we got two goals.”

He added: “I am happy with my team because we are improving game by game. When we started, most of the players were not fully match fit because many were on holiday after the season and we have been working on improving every game. Now we are way better.”

On coming up against Tanzania, who finished their Group B matches unbeaten, Sektioui said: “To be honest I have not watched much of Tanzania’s games because when we are here, my focus was on our group but for sure, we expect a difficult match because they are also a team which is playing in their home ground.”