Morocco manager takes dig at Man City boss Pep Guardiola over playing style

Morocco manager Walid Regragui took a swipe at Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola when asked about his side's style of play ahead of their World Cup semi-final meeting with France.

On Wednesday Morocco will make history when they become the first African side to ever feature in the last-four of a men's World Cup. They will take on France, who defeated England 2-1 in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Morocco's run to the semi-finals has been the story of the tournament, with the Atlas Lions receiving widespread praise for eliminating Spain and Portugal along the way. However, Regragui's side has attracted criticism from some quarters for their style of play, most notably from a number of Spanish players - including City midfielder Rodri - in the wake of the last-16 clash between the two nations.

Speaking after his Spain side had been knocked out of the World Cup by Morocco on penalties after playing out a goalless draw, Rodri said: "Morocco offered absolutely nothing, without disrespecting them. In the game, they did nothing. They just waited for the counters. They stayed behind and tried to counter us."

While Rodri was undoubtedly caught up in the heat of the moment - it's untrue that Morocco 'just waited for counters' - Morocco's approach to the match was certainly at odds with Spain's possession-based approach. Against Spain they had just 23 per cent possession, while against Portugal that only increased to 27 per cent.

In response to accusations that Morocco play too conservatively, Regragui said his team is "going to play like we know how". He then went on to criticise the idea that possession-based football is the best way to play, and even took a swipe at Guardiola, the coach many see as one of the chief exponents of the style.

"Possession is extraordinarily misleading – you can have 70 per cent possession and you only shoot twice," he said. "There's expected goals too: ‘We should have won, we had 4 expected goals! We’re here to win, that’s all.

"It’s certain when you have Kevin De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva that you have the ball, Pep Guardiola drove me crazy too."

Regragui admitted he took inspiration from Didier Deschamps' France side that won the 2018 World Cup while often averaging less than 40 per cent possession per game.

"France made me dream in 2018 in the way they played, Deschamps understood how to do it." He then added: "let’s stop with the statistics."

Quotes were transcribed by RMC Sport.