Four years ago, their run to the last four caught the world off guard. Today, the Atlas Lions are nobody’s surprise package. By holding Brazil to a 1-1 draw in their World Cup 2026 opener on Saturday — the first match of Group C — they laid down a marker for an ambition their coach, Mohamed Ouahbi, no longer bothers to hide: going further than they did in 2022.
Mohamed Ouahbi waved the question away. Would he sign up right now to repeat the Qatar fairytale? “I say no — I want to go further than the semi-final.” The tone was set. Four years after stunning the planet, Morocco are no longer content to play spoiler: they’re pulling up a chair at the contenders’ table, and they own it.
“We’ve moved into another dimension, and we have to live up to it,” the manager insists. His side’s first half against the Seleção — a Brazil admittedly a notch below its usual standing — hinted at real intent. The backstory has forged some steel, too: beaten finalists at their home Africa Cup of Nations against Senegal in January, Morocco ultimately reclaimed the trophy by administrative ruling in March. Enough to walk into this World Cup with a straighter back.
Against the five-time world champions, the draw reads almost like a statement. “We showed we had ambition, that we wanted to win the game, that we knew exactly what we were doing. We showed a lot of character,” the coach sums up.
A Spine Forged in Europe
That self-belief didn’t appear from nowhere. Since 2022, the Lions have banked experience on the continent’s biggest stages. On the right, captain Achraf Hakimi, a two-time European champion with Paris Saint-Germain. On the left, Noussair Mazraoui, fresh from a spell at Manchester United. And through the middle, the elusive Ismael Saibari — sometimes a defender, more often a playmaker, a scorer on Saturday — one of the architects of PSV Eindhoven’s title this season. Pulling the strings, finally, Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz, who joined the squad in 2024. A core of seasoned operators that barely existed in raw form back in Qatar.
The Stamp of a “Different Generation”
But experience only pays off when paired with fresh blood — and that’s exactly Ouahbi’s bet. Appointed in March to succeed Walid Regragui, a developer at heart and a freshly crowned U20 world champion in 2025, he hasn’t hesitated to throw his young guns into the fire.
On Saturday, midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi earned his first World Cup cap at just 18. A convincing debut from the Lille man, who only committed to the Moroccan kingdom in late May after long wearing the colours of France’s youth sides. Alongside him, Neil el-Aynaoui (24), son of former tennis player Younès el-Aynaoui, also lit up the screen. “Two midfielders who put in a huge shift,” Ouahbi says, keen to cool down a Moroccan press already won over by the northerner.
Hakimi, for his part, had framed it all before kick-off: “This is a different generation from 2022. We’ve been through the AFCON, we know our responsibility. In 2022, we didn’t have reaching the semi-final as a target.” It’s all there. And Ouahbi declared himself “very proud” of players who “dared to play, dared to ask for the ball, dared to build out under pressure.”
The Flip Side
Behind the praise, though, the manager keeps his feet on the ground. The second half, scrappier, was a reminder that not everything was polished. “It’s been a while since we played a high-intensity game, so it’s normal we struggled after the break. The players who came on finished it off well.”
The numbers back up those reservations: technically slick (123 passes in the opposition’s final third, per Opta), Morocco lacked a cutting edge. Too many chances squandered in the first half. “We wasted a lot of openings, and in a match like this, you pay dearly for it,” el-Aynaoui admits, pointing to “several things to fix before the next game.”
Next Up: Scotland, and Beyond
That next game is Scotland, on 20 June in Boston — a very different proposition from Brazil. “There are going to be some collisions,” Ouahbi warns, well aware of the physical edge waiting for his men.
The Lions then wrap up their group in Atlanta against Haiti, beaten 1-0 by the Scots that same Saturday. An equation is already taking shape: to top the group, Morocco will need to mind their goal difference. First place would open up a round-of-32 tie in Houston against the runner-up of Group F (the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden or Tunisia). Second place would mean a long haul from New Jersey all the way to Monterrey, Mexico, to face that group’s winner.
In other words: time to be clinical. Morocco have proved they have the stature. Now they have to turn ambition into certainty.
