Johannesburg – Morocco need to begin to deliver on their enormous potential, said striker Mounir El Hamdaoui after the team flattered to deceive again at the start of the African Nations Cup in South Africa.
“We really want to achieve something with this team because we have some really good players. It's really important we now work towards winning the next game if we are do well in the competition,” said the 28-year-old Dutch-born forward after his side held off a late Angolan onslaught to come away with a point from their opening game in Johannesburg on Saturday.
“It is a young team, we have a lot of good players but you know the results are what counts.”
Morocco's side brims with talent and were highly fancied at the last edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon last year.
But they crashed out after losing their first two home matches and had been in free fall until coming from behind to beat Mozambique in the qualifiers in October.
They showed patches of enterprise again on Saturday against Angola with the wing play of Nordin Amrabat and Oussama Assaidi displaying potential and El Hamdaoui looking strong in attack.
Younes Belhanda, arguably the talisman of the Morocco side, came on in the second half after recent injury to liven up proceedings for a short spell but then Morocco found themselves on the back foot as Angola laid siege to their goal.
“I think our final pass has to improve. We have good positional play but we let ourselves down with the final touch or the final pass. We have to work on that,” he told Reuters.
Morocco's next encounter is against hosts South Africa in Durban on Wednesday. – Reuters