Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi questioned Kylian Mbappé’s crucial goal haul after his side’s 2-0 lead. FIFA World Cup quarter-final defeat to France, insisting that “it was definitely a handball” while expressing confusion over why the incident was not reviewed by VAR.Controversy emerged during the sequence that led to Mbappé’s goal, with several Moroccan players who stopped the game believing that France handled the ball in the build-up.Speaking after Morocco’s World Cup campaign ended, Ouahbi admitted he wasn’t sure the incident should have resulted in a free kick, but said the handball itself was obvious.“Some players stopped because there was a handball. And of course there was a handball!” Ouahbi told reporters. “I don’t know if it should be called or not; I have no idea… in the end, it was an individual effort by Kylian Mbappé that led to the goal.”
Because VAR did not intervene
Despite the protests of Morocco, referee analyst Juan Guzmán explained that the officials were correct not to disallow the goal.According to Guzmán, the handball was incidental and did not have a direct or immediate impact on the goal. More importantly, possession changed hands before Mbappé’s decisive contribution, meaning that the attacking phase that produced the goal was considered separate from the earlier incident.Under the Laws of the Game, VAR only intervenes in attacking handball situations when the offense leads directly to a goal or creates an immediate scoring opportunity. Since these conditions were not met, the goal was allowed to stand.
France deserved the win, admitted Ouahbi
While he was disappointed by the controversial moment, Ouahbi acknowledged that France were the better team in the course of the match.“We are disappointed, but the first half was very difficult,” he said. “The French were very good with the ball. They had a lot of possession, they caused a lot of problems on the flanks with their players, and also in the center.”The Morocco coach admitted his side struggled to launch effective counter-attacks whenever they regained possession.“When we had the ball, our transitions weren’t that great, so we needed to run a little more, and they ended up being in a comfort zone,” he added.Ouahbi also conceded that France created the clearest opportunities while Morocco lacked freshness and creativity.“We have to recognize that they are a great team. They have excellent players and had better scoring opportunities. We lacked ideas and freshness,” he said.Despite another World Cup exit by France – who also knocked out Morocco in the 2022 semi-finals – Ouahbi believes the Atlas Lions will continue to close the gap on the world’s elite.“Today, France was stronger, but we are able to compete and advance even more, and maybe eliminate them four years later,” he said.He ended with a message of pride and realism for his players: “I told my players to keep their heads high because we gave everything… but we need to take stock of the situation. We can’t just say that we are happy and proud of our performance. We need to move forward, and to do so, we have to be objective and do a little self-criticism.”