ADELAIDE: Morocco’s clash with favourites France in the Women’s World Cup on Tuesday will be a special occasion for their players and coach Reynald Pedros as the tournament debutantes aim to continue their fairytale run by reaching the quarter-finals.

       In one of the most unexpected outcomes of an already unpredictable group stage, Morocco reached the knockouts as runners-up to Colombia in Group ‘H’ after beating the South Americans 1-0.

       Pedros, 51, is a former France international and said he was looking forward to taking on the country of his birth when the two teams face off in the last 16 in Adelaide.

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       “It’s not a problem for me to win against France. I will do everything for us to qualify for the quarter-finals.”

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       Pedros said after the Colombia game that he had the advantage of knowing the France team “perfectly”. Beating France, ranked fifth in the world, would be a remarkable achievement for 72nd-ranked Morocco.

       “We have to go up a notch with the game that we have done against Colombia, which was already a very high level for us.” Pedros said “We have to go beyond what we can do and what we can expect, because we would like to qualify for the quarter-finals.”

       Meanwhile, Jamaica coach Lorne Donaldson likened their last-16 clash against Colombia to a boxing bout and pledged to be the ones delivering the knockout punch.

       “We are going to come up and give it a good shot.” said Donaldson. “Someone will be knocked out, like a boxing match, someone will go down. We’re going to be the one standing when the game is over.

       Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2023