Morocco is writing a football fairytale at the World Cup in Qatar. Ex-Schalker Marc Wilmots sees parallels to the 1997 S04 team that won the Uefa Cup.
The performance of the Moroccan national team at the World Cup in Qatar reminds Marc Wilmots of his time at Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04. “The squad is a unit. Everyone runs for everyone, everyone fights for everyone, everyone works for everyone – literally until they drop, until they have cramps,” Wilmots told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe. “It kind of reminds me of Schalke, our story from 1997 with the Eurofighters.”
The former midfielder was under contract with the Königsblauen from 1996 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2003. In 1997, the now 53-year-old won the Uefa Cup. The team went down in history under the name “Eurofighters”.
After his active career, Wilmots worked as a coach. He coached the national teams of Belgium, Iran and the Ivory Coast. World Cup participants Morocco, who will play the semi-final against France on Wednesday (8 pm/ZDF and Magenta TV), also know Wilmots very well. Until February of this year, he coached the Moroccan top club Raja Casablanca.
Morocco’s national coach Walid Regragui has created a collective, he says. “He has also managed to close the gap that sometimes exists between the local professionals and the mostly foreign-born legionnaires,” Wilmots said.
Morocco’s team possesses above-average individual talents such as Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi, Bayern defender Noussair Mazraoui, defender Romain Saiss (Besiktas Istanbul), midfield strategist Sofyan Amrabat (AC Florence) and striker Youssef En-Nesryi (Sevilla FC), he added. “Around this block, the coach has formed a formation in which many things are right,” says Wilmots.
The ex-Schalker also believes Morocco can pull off a surprise against defending champions France. Why not? Everything seems possible. But I remain realistic. Now the brave Moroccans will meet another quality, although the French were also lucky in the high-class duel against England, their best game so far,” Wilmots said.