Walid Regragui wants Morocco to end "priceless" World Cup on high note

Having become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the tournament, Morocco valiantly matched France for much of Wednesday's showdown before going down by a 2-0 scoreline.

However, despite the disappointment of failing to earn a match with Argentina in the final, the Atlas Lions have still enjoyed an unforgettable stay in Qatar.

After topping a group which featured Saturday's opponents, Belgium and Canada, Morocco remarkably overcame Spain and Portugal in the last 16 and quarter-finals respectively.

Regragui has naturally admitted that he is not experiencing the same level of emotion towards the third-place playoff than he would have been for the final.

Nevertheless, Regragui has talked up the achievement of preparing for their seventh game in the same tournament having previously taken 20 years to play their previous six games ahead of the current edition.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, as quoted by BBC Sport, Regragui said: "We would like things to have gone differently and played in the final. There is another game to play, we would like to be on the podium.

"I understand it's important to finish third rather than fourth, but my takeaway is we didn't reach the final. We wanted to play the final on Sunday, not play tomorrow.

"But I told my players this is our seventh World Cup game. If you told any Morocco fan we would be playing our seventh game on 17 December, they would be proud.

"Morocco played six World Cup games in 20-odd years and now we've played six games in a month - this is priceless. It's as if we played two World Cups or even more, that's beautiful from an experience point of view."

When the two teams met in Group F on November 23, they played out an uninspiring goalless draw, one which was perceived to be a better result for Morocco given their contrasting histories.

Morocco will be without captain Romain Saiss who needed to be withdrawn for the second match in succession versus France with a hamstring injury.