Coach Santos: 'Portugal will be very difficult to play against Morocco'
* Morocco - Portugal: 10pm today, on MetaSports.
"Morocco is very well organised, has talent, has the creativity of African players, is collective and influenced by European play. Morocco is disciplined and runs a lot," Santos said. said on December 9 at the pre-match press conference.
Portugal made the strongest impression in the 1/8 round, when they crushed Switzerland 6-1. In particular, Goncalo Ramos - the 21-year-old striker who replaced Cristiano Ronaldo - shone when he scored his first hat-trick in Qatar 2022, also the first hat-trick in the knockout round of the World Cup since 1990.
But Santos thinks Morocco is very strong and will cause other problems with Switzerland. The 68-year-old coach pointed out that Morocco is the only team in the new quarter-finals to concede a goal and keep an unbeaten record in the group stage. He also praised Morocco's squad with many players playing for clubs in Europe's top five leagues, including Achraf Hakimi at PSG, Hakim Ziyech at Chelsea, Noussair Mazraoui at Bayern or Yassine Bounou at Sevilla.
Morocco was the biggest surprise when it reached the quarter-finals of a World Cup for the first time. In the group stage, Morocco is one of the top three teams with seven points, along with the Netherlands and England. Specifically, the African representative drew 0-0 with Croatia, 2-0 against Belgium, and 2-1 in Canada in the group stage. In the 1/8 round, Morocco held the Spanish champion candidate for 120 minutes, then won 3-0 in the penalty shootout.
"Only people who didn't watch the matches against Spain and Croatia doubt the quality of Morocco," Santos continued. "Many people think Portugal will have an easy game, but it won't happen, even we will have a very difficult time. Morocco is a quality team, always playing without fear and with confidence." .
In the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, Portugal defeated Morocco thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's header in the 4th minute. Coach Santos said this was Portugal's most difficult match at the tournament four years ago, and praised Morocco for having tremendous progress.
The head coach of Portugal also rated midfielder Sofyan Amrabat as a big discovery in the tournament, playing an important role in both defense and attack. He also denied that Portugal was appreciated more than Morocco thanks to the experience of playing in the knockout round of the World Cup, and left open the possibility of continuing to place Ronaldo as a substitute.
