Morocco coach Eric Gerets keen to stay

Jan 31, 2012, 21:45 GMT

Libreville, Gabon - Morocco's coach Eric Gerets said Tuesday that he was keen to stay with the team, even though they had been knocked out in the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Belgian said that the qualifiers had shown that the team had reasons to be confident ahead of the tournament.

However, defeats against Tunisia and Gabon had eliminated the north Africans ahead of their final group game against Niger, which they won 1-0 on Tuesday in Libreville.

Gerets said that despite the victory in the final game, the campaign had been 'a catastrophe.'

'I have not had a lot of disappointments in my career, and the fact that Gabon and Tunisia were not better than us frustrates me even more,' the former Belgian international defender said.

'I am returning to Morocco now, so I will be facing people who had earlier made me feel so welcome, so maybe I will experience the other side of the coin now. But starting tomorrow, we will continue to work. I will not flee. It would be terrible to leave now.'

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