Mills, Boa Morte at loggerheads over Morocco's World Cup performances

After losing 1-0 to Iran in their opening Group B match, Herve Renard's men suffered another defeat by the same scoreline against Portugal to get sent packing early.

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Despite their early exit, Boa Morte believes the Atlas Lions could keep their chins up after playing entertaining football in Russia.

"If I was a Morocco supporter, I would be happy with what I saw because they outplayed Portugal and had a lot of chances," commented the former Portuguese international, one of Astro SuperSport's guest pundits for this year's FIFA World Cup.

"They definitely can be proud of their performances and they know that against Spain [their last group opponents], they will have a lot to play for, not for qualification to the next stage of the competition but for clubs that are going to look at them.

"[The match against Spain] is [important] for the Morocco players to improve their contracts, get better clubs and prepare for the next AFCON [Africa Cup of Nations], so they will still be up for it."

However, Mills disagreed with the notion, believing the North African side would struggle in their final group match against Spain on Monday (Tuesday 2am in Malaysian time).

"They have to score though, as you cannot come to a tournament, not score goals and say you did well," said the former England full-back.

"They have done okay, but I don't think they can go home and say they have done themselves proud, and I don't expect them to score against Spain.

"Spain have to win the game either to top the group or to qualify, and I don't think Morocco, having lost two and knowing they are going out, they are not going to put much of a fight against Spain, who will dominate posession."

Boa Morte responded by saying anything can happen in football, such as New Zealand in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, where they crashed out in the group stage but finished unbeaten ahead of then defending champions Italy.

"I think they [New Zealand] would rather lose a game and then go to the final," Mills countered before adding that Morocco underperformed as they failed to score especially with the players they had.

"If you lose 3-2, you could say 'we had a go, we scored some goals, we put ourselves in with the chances and we were a little unlucky', but if you lose 1-0, it means you don't have enough quality to score.

"If you had Champions League players like [Hakim] Ziyech and had that many [goal-scoring] chances, you had to put one away.

"If you had 10 chances and did not score, you would be disappointed."