Morocco had hoped to advance to the World Cup semi-finals, but said they had to accept defeat by the best team. France advanced to the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over Morocco on Thursday night.
Coach Mohamed Ouahbi said his team left a good impression, despite being defeated by France for the second consecutive tournament.
"I told the players to keep their heads up, because we gave everything. We gave our best, but we need to assess the situation to move forward. It's essential," Ouahbi said.
"We can't just say we're happy and proud of our performance. We have to move forward and to do that we have to be objective, be self-critical and approach the situation."
Morocco did not pose any threat to the French goal for almost the entire match.
"We are disappointed, but the first half was very difficult. France was very good with the ball. They had the ball most of the time, while causing us problems both on the wing and in the center," continued coach Ouahbi.
He stressed that Morocco's transition was not proper. This forced the Moroccans to run more, while the French were comfortable.
also
Deschamps: Morocco has excellent footballers
"We have to admit that the French have a good team. They have excellent players and had more good chances to score. We lacked ideas and freshness to do more when we had the ball. We have to accept this defeat. It is difficult to talk immediately after the match, but it is also difficult to talk about regret when we have reached the quarter-finals."
Morocco was in the semifinals four years ago, where it was stopped by France.
