Doha

Morocco coach Walid Regragui shot down the idea that he needs to motivate his players for the Croatia match with the prospect of winning the first-ever medal at the football showpiece event on Saturday at the Khalifa International Stadium.

The 47-year-old tactician admitted that the FIFA World Cup third-place play-off is the "worst game" to play in for, but wants his side to become the first African nation to win a medal in the Finals.

Morocco already created history by becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.

"I don't really need to motivate my team, we are at the World Cup representing Morocco. We even want to win friendlies so the objective is to get that third place, we want to improve our FIFA ranking. If we finish third in a World Cup, we will really hike it up," Regragui said at the pre-match press conference.

"Finishing third is not the same as finishing fourth and we want to take a medal home with us. After the game, we will think about what the future has in store. We will have a completely different status following the World Cup. We want to show what we are made of and also pave the way for the future of Moroccan football."

Having beaten Belgium, Spain and Portugal to reach the semis, Morocco lost 2-0 to reigning champions France as their record-breaking run came to an end in Qatar on Thursday.

"We would like things to have gone differently and played in the final but there is another game to play, we would like to be on the podium," he said.

Regragui confirmed skipper Romain Saiss will not be fit for the match, having risked his captain at just "60-70 per cent" in the semifinal, a decision which backfired when he limped off after just 20 minutes.

"We lost our captain Romain Saiss during the game, we took a risk but it was a risk worth taking," added Regragui.

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"We wanted to go out to battle with him leading the battalion. We have another couple of injured players but we will see how it goes.