Morocco

Morocco arrive at this tournament with a new manager and a squad that has the potential, at least quality-wise, to top even the brilliant top-four finish of 2022. Mohamed Ouahbi has only been in charge for three months and has made a few minor tactical tweaks to Walid Regragui's Morocco, but the overall themes remain similar. Morocco at AFCON lined up in a 4-3-3 where Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Díaz would overlap frequently on the right flank to create passing triangles with Bilal El Khannouss; a similar pattern was used on the left (but less frequently) with Noussair Mazraoui, Abde Eze and Ismael Saibari respectively. Under Ouahbi, Morocco still leverage Hakimi as a wide attacker but with less overlapping, so the resulting possession shape is almost something like a 3-2-5. The squad's lack of conventional striker options outside of Ayoub El Kaabi is perhaps a product of this philosophy, and in fact Ouahbi seems to prefer Saibari in that position instead as a more well-rounded technical option who can offer pressing ability off the ball.

Some injury notes: Nayef Aguerd has been sidelined by pubalgia in March and dropped out; Issa Diop takes his place in the lineup. Eze and Mazraoui both sustained injuries against Norway, Eze is now out entirely, potentially to be replaced by El Khannouss; Mazraoui's injury seemed less serious, but Anass Salah-Eddine would be his replacement.