MOROCCO legend Badou Ezzaki, popularly known as “Zaki”, has made a bold call that his countrymen were not among the favourites to win the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
The 57-year-old premised his stance on the fact that his country’s national team have failed to perform since they reached the final in 2004 and lost 1-2 to Tunisia.
Morocco were defeated 1-0 by DR Congo in their 2017 Afcon opening match on Monday.
Interestingly Zaki was head coach of the Atlas Lions at the time when they finished top of their group in 2004 ahead of Nigeria, South Africa and Benin before defeating Algeria and Mali in the quarterfinals and semis respectively.
Zaki believes that after 12 years of failing to progress beyond the group stage of the Afcon, “it does not make sense to dream” of hitting higher heights like winning the title.
The CR Belouizdad head coach added that should Morocco reach Afcon’s last four “it will be such an achievement” as he believes that the nations which had done well at recent editions of the Fifa World Cup remained favourites to win the African championship.
Morocco, making their 16th appearance at Afcon, next face Togo at the Stade d’Oyem on Friday. – SUPERSPORT.COM
