Qatar 2022: We Played Morocco With Fear Of Losing — Martinez

Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez has said his side went into their clash with Morocco on Sunday with fear of losing.

Second half goals from Abdelhamid Sabiri in the 73rd minute and Zakaria Aboukhlal in the 92nd minute, earned Morocco their first win at the World Cup since France 1998.

The win took Morocco to four points going into their final group game with already eliminated Canada.

For Belgium they face a difficult encounter against a Croatian side that hammered Canada 4-1.

And reacting to the shock defeat, Martinez explained how his team fell to the North Africans.

“That is a mindset, I don’t think it is a lack of quality. We played a lot better on the ball than we did against Canada and got into really beneficial positions, but then that next pass was missing, that link-up was missing in the final third.

“We couldn’t find that spare man and I think that was because we played with a fear of losing.

“That is difficult to understand because in the last six years we are a team that always find opportunities to score. We had scored goals in almost 50 consecutive games, but here we failed to find the back of the net and it cost us.

“The players work so hard for each other off the ball and then on the ball I don’t see that enjoyment and that’s what we need to work on. We need to be ourselves.

“We probably now are in a situation where we have nothing to lose anymore [against Croatia].

“It is something to win. It would be a real start for us at this World Cup because the talent is there and the quality in front of goal has always been there as one of the strengths of our team.”