The head coach of the Moroccan national football squad, Henri Michel of France, says his players were not in any way going to win the 20 0 8 African nations' cup soccer tournament currently holding in Ghana.

Morocco, third in Group A with three points, were knocked out in the first rou nd.

They had thrashed Namibia 5-1 but fell 3-2 to Guinea and 2-0 to Ghana.

"It's not normal to keep on saying we can and should win the without getting t he conditions required for that," local media quoted the French technician as saying here Saturday.

Michel, noting that most of the African teams had big players that starred in lo cal clubs before joining prestigious foreign sides, explained that Morocco had no players of that stature and that the national cham pionship had not reached such a level.

"The Moroccan side has excellent players but not big statures that can change th e course of a match mainly in trying moments instead of collapsing each time the

team is dominated," he added.

"Fatal errors cost us dearly during the last two matches. Against Guinea we coul d have equalised. Defensive errors, the poor handling and the inability of the p l ayers to follow the pace of the encounters raised by the rivals' physical force a nd technical potentialities were our undoing," he admitted.

The Moroccan coach also expressed regrets that the standard he had raised duri ng his first term in charge (1995-2000) had fallen drastically, stressing that " a t that time he had tried to prepare a complete team with which he achieved good r esults and found several good players."

Michel said the time had come "to really seek effective ways to raise the level of the national squad, and stabilise the technical and administrative staff of t h e Moroccan Football Association."

Morocco won the African Cup of Nations in 1976 in Ethiopia.