Walid Regragui took the fate of the semi-final loser with composure. It didn't help.

"It's difficult to plan for the future after a defeat," said the Moroccan national coach after the unfortunate 2-0 loss to world champions France in Al-Khour. The North Africans, who were furious as their continent's first team to get through the knockout stages this far, can claim third place in the World Cup against Croatia on Saturday.

"It will be a mental challenge, we have a lot of injured players," said Regragui. "We want to win." However, the 47-year-old also announced that he would give those players playing time who had previously had to watch the World Cup in Qatar. "We need some time to recover and then we'll start the game. We want to finish third to make our country proud," said the coach.

The Moroccans had already had to replace their two regular centre-backs Nayef Aguerd (West Ham United) and captain Romain Saiss (Besiktas Istanbul) shortly before and during the first half on Wednesday. After the break, the ailing Bayern professional Noussair Mazraoui was unable to continue playing.

Finally, Regragui looked beyond the World Cup. "We have to show such performances regularly in Africa if we want Morocco to be on the football map," said the ex-professional. "We want to qualify for every World Cup so that it's normal for people in the future. We've achieved a lot, we've shown that we can compete with the top teams. We have to show that regularly and prove that it's no coincidence was."