Morocco XI to play Croatia in World Cup's third place playoff: Ounahi benched, Sabiri starts

Given he is in contention for the goalkeeper of the tournament award, Bounou is the first name on the team sheet.

Another standout performer for Morocco, Hakimi has been ever present and it explains why he has kept his place in the starting team.

Hakimi’s ability to pick out passes from deep has seen him provide one assist and it might come in handy if the North Africans find themselves doing more defending than attacking against Croatia.

With Morocco’s first-choice centre-backs Romain Saiss and Nayef Aguerd injured, Dari has started his second straight match at the World Cup, having played 90 minutes against France and 34 off the bench against Portugal in the quarter-final.

El Yamiq was the beneficiary of Aguerd’s absence through injury, starting against Portugal and France, and has started a third straight game at the heart of Morocco’s defence.

A battle for a starting berth at left-back has been between Noussair Mazraoui and Yahia Attiyat-Allah but coach Walid Regragui has opted to go with the latter owing to his exploits defensively and offensively.

Mazraoui has also been struggling with injury.

Another ever present member of Morocco’s historic run in Qatar, the Fiorentina midfielder is the man who gets the Atlas Lions going, shielding the back four when out of possession and acting as the link between defence and attack.

Selim Amallah has been benched with El Khannouss taking his place alongside Amrabat. He will have to be alert and cover his partner especially when the team is attacking.

Sabiri has been preferred in the attacking midfield role as Azzedine Ounahi drops to the bench. Sabiri has not featured in the last two matches against Portugal and France respectively.

The Chelsea winger has a goal and an assist given he is the man that makes Morocco tick in the final third. Ziyech’s passes and crosses have been too difficult for opposition defenders to deal with and only poor finishing from his teammates has denied him more assists.

Boufal’s tendency to drop deep and win possession has helped take the pressure off the fullbacks and he also likes to carry the ball into the box before passing to teammates.

Morocco’s top scorer with two goals, the 25-year-old will want an opportunity to right the wrongs of Wednesday when he left the pitch with the unwanted statistic of having touched the ball only three times in 65 minutes.