Romain Saiss and the rest of the Morocco squad are driven by the desire to make African and Arab history at the Qatar 2022 World Cup today, the Atlas Lions captain has declared.
Morocco play their first-ever World Cup quarter-final today when they face Portugal, and they are aiming to become the first African and Arab team to reach the global tournament’s semi-finals.
“We know we can do something historic for African football,” Saiss told FIFA.
“We made Moroccan football history by reaching the quarter-final but, of course, as football players and competitors, we want even more. When you start a competition, no matter which one, you want to win all the games.
“And it’s with this drive, with the aim to go to the end, that we’ll go as far as possible.
“It’s what we’ve been doing, we haven’t set limits – we just want to give it our all so we don’t have regrets at the end and so we can say that we did our best to go as far as possible, that individually, and as a team, we gave everything we had. That’s how we’ll be able to do great things.”
The Besiktas centre-back admitted Morocco are under pressure by carrying the hopes of the African continent and the Arab world, but they are ready for the battle.
“All the players in the squad play in big championships and big teams so they know what the pressure of the result is, and how intensified it is when it’s for the country,” the former Wolves star added.
“We want to make Moroccan history, and our own history, because what we’re experiencing is something we don’t realise yet because we’re quite isolated, which I think is a good thing, but we want to go further and not set limits so we’ll do everything to make it.
“I think that we’re representing an entire country today. Not only that, as we also represent all African people,
the Arab and Muslim world, too. We know we’ve got responsibilities in that sense. We’ve been experiencing magical moments since the start of the competition.
“All these people experience fantastic moments through us, too, including our families, who are with us. They are moments that will remain forever engraved. We want to keep experiencing such moments.”
Saiss will not even rule out Morocco from going all the way and becoming the first country outside of Europe and South America to win the World Cup.
“Of course they’re allowed to dream, everyone is allowed to dream. I think we’re a team that can remain humble and aware of things,” he responded when asked if Moroccans could dream of the trophy.
“We know we’ve been doing great things but we’re not going to get carried away with all that. We know very well that if we start thinking we’re someone else, we can easily miss out and disappoint many.
“The most important thing is to remain focused on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, too. And as for what’s coming, we’ll see; only God knows what’s going to happen.”
