Moroccan Abdessalam Benjelloun admits international results have made it worst week of career but vows Hibs will benefit

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 10:14

HIBS star Abdessalam Benjelloun today admitted suffering one of the worst weeks in his football career after Morocco failed to qualify for the finals of the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 14 years.

With hopes of playing in next summer's World Cup in South Africa already long gone, Easter Road ace Benji made the long journey home still harbouring faint hopes of helping his nation make their continent's equivalent of the European Championships.

But that forlorn hope was dashed with a 2-0 defeat by Cameroon in his hometown of Fes, the result leaving the population of the North African state distraught and 24-year-old Benji devastated.

He said: "To be honest, I haven't been able to sleep since I came back to Edinburgh because the events of last weekend are running through my mind non-stop. I returned on Tuesday but I've maybe only had two or three hours sleep each night because I'm in such turmoil.

"We have 36 million people in our country and every single one of them, men, women and children are all football daft. When we win everyone is happy but, as we saw last weekend, there was a very bad reaction.

"I don't blame the supporters, I am proud of my country and I am, of course, a fan myself. They are very passionate about their football team, just as the Tartan Army are of Scotland, so I don't blame them. I respect their reaction and feel very sorry we weren't able to give them what they wanted."

If Benji was still coming to terms with his country's failure, he was, he admitted, beginning to realise what it must be like to be a Scotland fan having not witnessed the dark blue jerseys in action in the finals of a major tournament since Morocco defeated Craig Brown's side 3-0 in the French city of St Etienne in 1998.

He said: "This is the first time since 1996 that Morocco won't be playing in the African Cup and, like Scotland, we've missed out on the World Cup finals since France 11 years ago.

"And like the Scots, I have to remain optimistic and believe we can qualify for the next World Cup in Brazil and the next African Cup. We had a young team out against Cameroon, players who need experience and sometimes you perhaps need to take a step back to go forward again. Look at France, they didn't go to the World Cup in 1994 but then won the competition in 1998 and the European Championships which followed."

Although he played no part in last weekend's showdown, injury forcing him to watch on television from his Edinburgh home, Benji's countryman Merouane Zemmama has been feeling similarly down while the Moroccan pair can do little more than sympathise with Hibs' Irish contingent following their nation's controversial exit via the hand of French striker Thierry Henry.

Benji said: "I think there's a lot of frustration amongst us following what has happened to our countries over the past few days. It's been very sad, it's the worst I have felt in my career and then you see what happened to Ireland.

"It was a very bad experience for them to lose in such a way but unfortunately these things happen in football, sometimes you play very well as Ireland did in Paris but you end up losing."

That said, Benji conceded the manner of their country's defeat had made it even tougher for team-mates like Liam Miller and Anthony Stokes, who were part of Irish boss Giovanni Trapattoni's original squad for the double-header, Kurtis Byrne and Patrick Cregg along with goalkeeper Graham Stack, who has played Under-21 football for the Republic, qualifying for play through his mother Christine who hails from Galway.

Now, though, he insisted they will all be determined to pick themselves up and look to take out their frustrations when Hibs swing back into SPL action against St Mirren in Paisley tomorrow.

Having taken 21 points from the first round of fixtures, confidence is high within the Easter Road dressing-room but Benji, who came off the bench to score the winner against the Saints on the opening day of the season, predicted another tough afternoon for Hughes' players.

He said: "We know what to expect, it will be another hard, physical match but we have to go there and be determined to play our own game, the style of football our fans want to see from us.

"But St Mirren did very well at Easter Road. They went down to ten men but still scored the first goal and it wasn't until late in the match that we managed to go on and win it."

And Benji believes Hibs' seven-match unbeaten run, which has helped hoist them into third place in the SPL table, has made them a target for other sides determined to cut them down to size.

He said: "We haven't been beaten since losing to Hamilton. I think other clubs are seeing us as one of the best sides in Scotland and they want to beat us because of that. We are finding the opposition players seem to be all the more determined to win every tackle, every header, to make every game as hard as possible for us to prove they are just as good.

"I've been saying since the season started that there isn't too much between many of the teams and, I think, results have shown that to be the case.

"Many of us have had a disappointing week on the international front – don't forget Derek Riordan being in Wales with Scotland – with only Sol Bamba happy because the Ivory Coast have made the World Cup finals, but we have a chance tomorrow to focus all our frustrations on St Mirren. You could see the reaction in training, everyone is very determined."

As difficult as he expects tomorrow to be, Benji insisted the match presented him and his team-mates with the opportunity to hammer out a statement of intent as the second round of SPL fixtures gets underway.

He said: "Can we get another 21 points? I think we could do even better. I still feel we should have beaten Hamilton, could have beaten Rangers and should have taken care of Dundee United.

"The fact is we didn't and it is up to us to prove we are good enough to win whoever we are playing. Hopefully we can continue to progress and if we could take as many points from the next two rounds of fixtures as we did in the first set then to have 60-odd points going into the split would be very good.

"It's also important we start this next phase of the season well and let other teams know we are determined to push on and do as well, if not better."