• Anissa Lahmari has been speaking to FIFA

• Midfielder looks ahead to last-16 clash with France

• Describes game as "a special tie" for the French-Moroccans in the squad

Having sent Germany crashing out with their 1-0 win over Colombia in their Group H finale, Morocco find themselves in uncharted territory as they prepare to face France in the Round of 16 of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™.

The Atlas Lionesses, despite losing their opening match 6-0 to Germany, have caused quite the stir by reaching the knockout phase of the competition in their first ever appearance at the tournament. They became the third African nations out of the four who originally qualified for Australia & New Zealand 2023 to successfully negotiate the group stage.

Born in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud, Moroccan midfielder Anissa Lahmari can now hardly hide her excitement at playing against a team featuring not only familiar faces, but "even friends".

"This match versus France has a real significance for me and for all of the other French-Moroccans in the squad,” she said in an exclusive interview with FIFA. "It’s going to be a great game and I couldn’t have hoped for a better draw in the Round of 16."

"The loser’s going home, but we’re still going to prepare for it like any other game. We’ll need to be really focused and give it our all," said Lahmari, before reflecting on the match against the Cafeteras last Thursday that saw her country make history.

"I came off in the 70th minute so that was pretty stressful. The Korea Republic versus Germany match was being shown right above us, so I was trying to follow both games at once.

"We were 1-0 [up] but we knew that we’d have to win by four clear goals if Germany ended up winning. It was really, really stressful."

While Morocco were holding on for victory, Germany were desperately clinging to their place in the tournament. "Everyone saw how it went. We were all on the pitch in the middle, pleased with what we’d done but obviously waiting for the result of the other game," said Lahmari, who plays her club football at Guingamp in the French top flight. "Everyone was together – all the players and coaches. We were all there, saying a prayer."

Once those prayers were answered, there was an outpouring of emotion in the Moroccan camp. "There are no words to describe that moment – it’s the first time I ever felt anything like that so it’s something that I’ll never forget,” Lahmari explained. "We got a lot of messages after the match. People were proud of us and so happy that we’d made our mark like that.

"We never gave up and I think we deserved what we got."

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