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Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi has questioned the upcoming steps to Kylian Mbappé’s key goal after his side’s 2-0 lead FIFA World Cup quarter-final defeat to France, insisting it was “definitely handballed” as he expressed confusion over why VAR did not review the incident.Controversy arose during the run-up to Mbappé’s goal, with several Moroccan players stopping play believing France had played the ball in the build-up.Speaking after Morocco’s World Cup campaign came to an end, Ouahbi admitted he was unsure whether the incident should have resulted in a free-kick, but insisted the handball itself was obvious.“Some players stopped because there was handball. And there was definitely handball!” Ouahbi told reporters. “I don’t know if it should have been called or not; I have no idea… in the end an individual effort by Kylian Mbappé led to a goal.”
Why didn’t VAR intervene?
Despite Morocco’s protests, referee analyst Juan Guzmán explained that the referees were right not to disallow the goal.According to Guzmán, the handball was accidental and had no direct or immediate impact on the goal. More importantly, possession changed hands before Mbappé’s decisive contribution, meaning the phase of the attack that led to the goal was considered separate from the earlier incident.According to the Laws of the Game, VAR only intervenes in attacking handball situations when the attack directly leads to a goal or creates an immediate goal-scoring opportunity. Since these conditions were not met, the goal was disallowed.
France deserved to win, admits Ouahbi
Although disappointed by the controversial moment, Ouahbi admitted that France were the better team during 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 created a lot of problems on the flanks with their players, and in the center.”The Morocco coach admitted his side struggled to counter-attack effectively whenever they regained possession.“When we had the ball, our transitions weren’t that great, so we had to run a little more, and they were in the comfort zone at the end,” he added.Ouahbi also admitted that France created more clear-cut chances while Morocco lacked freshness and creativity.“We have to admit that they are a great team. They have great players and better scoring opportunities. We lacked ideas and freshness,” he said.Despite another World Cup exit by France — who also eliminated Morocco in the 2022 semi-finals — Ouahbi believes the Atlas Lions continue to close the gap on the world’s elite.“Today, France was stronger, but we are capable of competing and advancing 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 up because we did our best… but we have to look at the situation. We can’t just say we’re happy and proud of our performance. We have to move forward, and to do that we have to be objective and have a bit of self-criticism.”
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