Morocco national football team

Morocco

Nickname(s)	أُسُودالأطلس (Lions of the Atlas)
Association	Royal Moroccan Football Federation
Sub-confederation	UNAF (North Africa)
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Head coach	Eric Gerets
Captain	Houssine Kharja
Most caps	Noureddine Naybet (115)
Top scorer	Ahmed Faras (42)[citation needed]
Home stadium	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium
FIFA code	MAR
FIFA ranking	61
Highest FIFA ranking	10 (April 1998)
Lowest FIFA ranking	95 (September 2010)
Elo ranking	59
Highest Elo ranking	17 (December 1998)
Lowest Elo ranking	70 (September 2010)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Morocco 3–3 Iraq (Lebanon; 19 October 1957)
Biggest win
Morocco 13–1 Saudi Arabia (Morocco; 6 September 1961)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 6–0 Morocco (Japan; 11 October 1964)
World Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1970)
Best result	Round of 16, 1986
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances	13 (First in 1972)
Best result	Winners, 1976

The Morocco national football team (Arabic: منتخب المغرب لكرة القدم‎), nicknamed أسود الأطلس (Lions of the Atlas), is the national team of Morocco and is managed by Eric Gerets. Winners of the African Nations Cup in 1976, they were the first African team to win a group at the World Cup, which they did in 1986, finishing ahead of Portugal, Poland, and England. They were also the first African team to make it to second round barely losing to eventual runner-ups West Germany 1–0 in 1986. They also came within two minutes of moving out of the group stage of the 1998 World Cup, Kjetil Rekdal's late winning goal for Norway against Brazil eliminating them.

Home stadium

The Moroccan National team traditionally used the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium (Rabat) and the Stade Mohamed V (Casablanca) as their main stadiums, but recently started using the new Marrakech stadium, as the last four home games were held there.

World Cup record

Morocco's national football team participated four times in the FIFA World Cup. Their best performance was the 1986 edition when they advanced to the second round, being the first African nation to do so. In 1998, the team narrowly missed repeating the same achievement.

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Did Not Enter
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958
1962	Did Not Qualify
1966	Withdrew
1970	Group Stage	14th	3	0	1	2	2	6
1974	Did Not Qualify
1978
1982
1986	Round of 16	11th	4	1	2	1	3	2
1990	Did Not Qualify
1994	Group Stage	23rd	3	0	0	3	2	5
1998	Group Stage	18th	3	1	1	1	5	5
2002	Did Not Qualify
2006
2010
2014	To Be Determined
2018
2022
Total	Round of 16	4/19	13	2	4	7	12	18

African Cup of Nations Record

Morroco team

]]

1957 – Did not enter 1959 – Did not enter 1962 – Withdrew 1963 – Did not qualify 1965 – Did not enter 1968 – Did not enter 1970 – Did not qualify 1972 – Round 1 1974 – Did not enter 1976 – Champions 1978 – Round 1 1980 – Third place 1982 – Did not qualify 1984 – Did not qualify 1986 – Fourth place

1988 – Fourth place 1990 – Did not qualify 1992 – Round 1 1994 – Did not qualify 1996 – Did not qualify 1998 – Quarterfinals 2000 – Round 1 2002 – Round 1 2004 – Second place 2006 – Round 1 2008 – Round 1 2010 – Did not qualify 2012 – Round 1 2013 – To be determined 2015 – Qualified (Host)

Results since 2010

Date	Venue	Home Team	Result	Away Team	Scorers	Competition
11 August 2010	Stade Moulay Abdellah, Rabat	Morocco	2–1	Equatorial Guinea	Hadji  64' 77'	Friendly
3 September 2010	Stade Moulay Abdellah, Rabat	Morocco	0–0	Central African Republic		2012 ACN Q
8 October 2010	Dar es Salaam	Tanzania	0–1	Morocco	Hamdaoui  43'	2012 ACN Q
17 November 2010	Windsor Park, Belfast	Northern Ireland	1–1	Morocco	Chamakh  56'	Friendly
9 February 2011	Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca	Morocco	3–0	Niger	Boussoufa  16' 82' Bakkali  90'	Friendly
27 March 2011	Stade 19 Mai 1956, Annaba	Algeria	1–0	Morocco		2012 ACN Q
6 June 2011	Marrakech Stadium	Morocco	4–0	Algeria	Benatia  25' Chamakh  38' Hadji  50' Assaidi  68'	2012 ACN Q
10 August 2011	Stade Leopold Senghor, Dakar	Senegal	0–2	Morocco	Kharja  10' Arabi  25'	Friendly
4 September 2011	Barthélémy Boganda Stadium	Central African Republic	0–0	Morocco		2012 ACN Q
9 October 2011	Marrakech Stadium	Morocco	3–1	Tanzania	Chamakh  20' Taarabt  69' Boussoufa  90'	2012 ACN Q
11 November 2011	Marrakech Stadium	Morocco	0–1	Uganda		Friendly
13 November 2011	Marrakech Stadium	Morocco	1–1 (PSO: 2–4)	Cameroon	Amrabt  89'	Friendly
23 January 2012	Stade d'Angondjé, Libreville	Tunisia	2–1	Morocco	Kharja  86'	2012 ACN
27 January 2012	Stade d'Angondjé, Libreville	Morocco	2–3	Gabon	Kharja  25' 89 (P)'	2012 ACN

Squad

Current squad

The following players were called up to participate in the 2012 African Cup of Nations. Caps and goals updated as January 27, 2012.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Nadir Lamyaghri February 13, 1976 (1976-02-13) 40 0 Wydad Casablanca 12 GK Mohamed Amsif February 7, 1989 (1989-02-07) 1 0 FC Augsburg 22 GK Issam Badda May 10, 1983 (1983-05-10) 0 0 FUS Rabat 2 DF Michaël Chrétien Basser July 10, 1984 (1984-07-10) 32 0 Bursaspor 3 DF Badr El Kaddouri January 31, 1981 (1981-01-31) 44 0 Dynamo Kyiv 15 DF Abdelhamid El Kaoutari March 17, 1990 (1990-03-17) 6 0 Montpellier 5 DF Mehdi Benatia April 17, 1987 (1987-04-17) 16 1 Udinese 18 DF Abdelfettah Boukhriss October 22, 1986 (1986-10-22) 2 0 FUS Rabat 16 DF Jamal Alioui June 2, 1982 (1982-06-02) 15 0 Al-Kharitiyath 23 DF Moustapha Lamrani March 2, 1980 (1980-03-02) 1 0 MAS Fès 4 DF Ahmed Kantari June 28, 1985 (1985-06-28) 5 0 Brest 6 MF Adil Hermach June 27, 1986 (1986-06-27) 10 0 Al Hilal Ryad 7 MF Adel Taarabt May 24, 1989 (1989-05-24) 14 4 Queens Park Rangers 8 MF Karim El Ahmadi January 27, 1985 (1985-01-27) 10 1 Feyenoord 10 MF Younès Belhanda February 25, 1990 (1990-02-25) 10 0 Montpellier 11 MF Oussama Assaidi August 15, 1988 (1988-08-15) 7 1 Heerenveen 13 MF Houssine Kharja (Captain) November 9, 1982 (1982-11-09) 68 9 Fiorentina 14 MF Mbark Boussoufa August 15, 1984 (1984-08-15) 27 4 Anzhi Makhachkala 19 MF Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez July 1, 1989 (1989-07-01) 4 0 Anzhi Makhachkala 21 MF Nordin Amrabat March 31, 1987 (1987-03-31) 4 1 Kayserispor 9 FW Youssef El-Arabi February 3, 1987 (1987-02-03) 9 1 Al Hilal Ryad 17 FW Marouane Chamakh January 10, 1984 (1984-01-10) 60 17 Arsenal 20 FW Youssouf Hadji February 25, 1980 (1980-02-25) 65 20 Rennes

African nations cup 2012 Qualification

Morocco finished 1st in their group and qualified for African nations cup automatically.

• Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Morocco	6	3	2	1	8	2	+6	11
Central African Republic	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
Algeria	6	2	2	2	5	8	−3	8
Tanzania	6	1	2	3	6	9	−3	5

4 September 2010 21:00 UTC±0	Morocco	0–0	Central African Republic	Stade Moulay Abdellah, Rabat Referee: Koman Coulibaly (Mali)
		Report

---

9 October 2010 16:00 UTC+3	Tanzania	0–1 (0–1)	Morocco	Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium, Dar-es-Salaam Referee: Seechurn Rajindraparsad (Mauritius)
		Report	El Hamdaoui  43'

---

27 March 2011 20:30 UTC+1	Algeria	1–0 (1–0)	Morocco	Stade 19 Mai 1956, Annaba Referee: Seechurn Rajindraparsad (Mauritius)
	Yebda  5' (pen.)

---

4 June 2011 21:00 UTC+1	Morocco	4–0 (2–0)	Algeria	Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech
	Benatia  25' Chamakh  38' Hadji  60' Assaidi  68'

African nations cup 2012

Morocco finished 3rd in their group and were knocked out of the 28th edition of the African Nations Cup at the first hurdle.

• Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Gabon	2	2	0	0	5	2	+3	6
Tunisia	2	2	0	0	4	2	+2	6
Morocco	2	0	0	2	2	5	−3	0
Niger	2	0	0	3	1	4	−3	0

23 January 2012 20:00	Morocco	1 – 2	Tunisia	Stade d'Angondjé, Libreville Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Daniel Bennett (South Africa)
	Kharja  86'	Report	Korbi  34' Msakni  75'

---

27 January 2012 20:00	Gabon	3 – 2	Morocco	Stade d'Angondjé, Libreville Referee: Bakary Gassama (Gambia)
	Aubameyang  77' Cousin  80' Mbanangoyé  90+7'		Kharja  25', 90+1' (pen.)

Coaches

• Larbi Ben Barek, Abdelkader Lohkmiri, Mohamed Kadmiri (1957–1961)
• Mohamed Massoun, Kader Firoud (1961–1964)
• Mohamed Massoun, Abderrahmane Belmahjoub (1964–1967)
• Cluzeau, Abdellah Settati (1968–1970)
• Blagoja Vidinić (1970–1971)
• Abderrahmane Belmahjoub (1971)
• José Barinaga (1972)
• Abdallah El-Emmani (1972–1976)
• Gheorghe Mărdărescu (1976–1977) (Winner of African Nations Cup)
• Abdallah Ben Barek "Malaga" (1977)
• Cluzeau (1979)
• Just Fontaine (1979–1981)
• Yabram Hamidouch (1981)
• José Faria "Mehdi" (1983–1988)
• Jaime Valente (1988–1989)
• Antonio Valentín "Angelino Angelillo" (1989–1990)
• Werner Olk (1990–1992)
• Abdelkhalek Louzani (1992-1993)
• Abdellah Ajri Blinda (1993–1994)
• Mohammed Lamari (1994)
• Gilson Nunez (1995)
• Henri Michel (1995–2000)
• Henryk Kasperczak (2000)
• Mustapha Madih (2001)
• Humberto Coelho (2002)
• Badou Zaki (2002–2005)
• Philippe Troussier (2005)
• Mohamed Fakhir (2005–2007)
• Henri Michel (2007–2008)
• Fathi Jamal (2008)
• Roger Lemerre (2008–2009)
• Hassan Moumen (2009–2010)
• Eric Gerets (2010–)

External links

• Morocco FA official site
• Maroc Football
• The Atlas Lions – The Moroccan National Soccer Team – Mountakhab
• Maroc Football.info
• Moroccan National Team (Atlas-Lions)
• RSSSF archive of results