{"id":21300,"date":"2025-12-18T10:12:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/hosts-morocco-face-heavy-burden-of-expectation-at-cup-of-nations\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:24","slug":"hosts-morocco-face-heavy-burden-of-expectation-at-cup-of-nations","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/hosts-morocco-face-heavy-burden-of-expectation-at-cup-of-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosts Morocco face heavy burden of expectation at Cup of Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Africa Cup of Nations hosts Morocco are putting up their best foot forward with sparkling stadiums and much-improved facilities for the 24 competing teams but the pressure on their own footballers to deliver the title is potentially stifling.<\/div>\n<div>\nAfrica&#8217;s top-ranked team were semi-finalists at the last World Cup, have won a record 18 games in a row and boast a star-studded squad of players based at leading European clubs, making them hot favourites for the title.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But despite their prominent position in the African game Morocco have won the tournament only once, and that was almost a half century ago. They have been heavily fancied at the last four editions but failed to make it beyond the quarter-finals.<\/div>\n<div>\nHome advantage should improve their chances but sell-out stadiums and a fanatical home crowd could also prove intimidating, combined with the responsibility of living up to all the organisational effort that has gone into the tournament<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe have to win the Cup of Nations,\u201d said coach Walid Regragui at a last press conference last month.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;At home, we\u2019ll be tough to play against, we\u2019ve proven that. We\u2019ve progressed and rejuvenated the team,\u201d he said of the disappointment of the last-16 defeat by South Africa at the last finals two years ago.<\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe\u2019ve integrated young players while maintaining our core strengths. We are coming into this tournament with confidence, but nothing is guaranteed.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Morocco will be co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain and the Cup of Nations benefits from nine stadiums in six cities, a first for the African championship.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Morocco\u2019s first three games are at the newly refurbished Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, with a capacity of 68 700, where the opening game and final will be played.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There is a rebuilt 75 000-seater stadium in Tangier that will also be used up to the semi-finals, plus venues in Agadir, Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Morocco will face a stiff examination from a formidable field &#8212; half of the 24 teams have won the Cup of Nations previously, and seven of them qualified for next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Defending champions Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal lead the West African challenge, while from the north of the continent Algeria and Egypt are also legitimate contenders.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Egypt have won the event a record seven times, but the last was in 2010, and this tournament is likely to be the last chance for Mohamed Salah to finally add honours at national-team level to his impressive club resume.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His controversial outburst at Liverpool earlier this month will add to the scrutiny he faces in Morocco.<\/div>\n<div>There are no newcomers in the field, though both Botswana and Comoros will play at only their second tournament.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Comoros proved giant killers at the 2021 finals in Cameroon when they eliminated Ghana and this time go straight into the fray in the opening game against Morocco on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13218,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-21300","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Morocco will be co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Morocco will be co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25024,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21300\/revisions\/25024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}