Croatia Beat Morocco 2-1 to Finish Third in World Cup 2022

Date: 18 December 2022 - 21:40

News ID: ۱۱۰۳۰۱

DOHA (Reuters) - Anyone who says that the play-off for third place should be gone away with because nobody wants to play it, would be well advised to watch a replay of the entertaining game produced by Croatia and Morocco.
Croatia were the well-deserved winners after first half goals from Josko Gvardiol and Mislac Orsic gave them a 2-1 lead to repeat their third-place finish from 1998, and the reactions from both teams and fans show that the result of this game did matter a lot.
Both coaches named competitive sides, with Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic starting for Croatia, while Sofiane Amrabat, Hakim Ziyech, Youssef En-Nesyri and Sofiane Boufal gave Morocco a familiar looking line-up.
It was completely different from the cagey 0-0 draw when the two teams kicked off the tournament almost a month ago, with Morocco keeper. Yassine Bouno almost put a clearance into his own net under pressure, before two quickfire goals made it 1-1 before 10 minutes were on the clock.
Croatia opened the scoring with a free kick that went straight from the training ground to the pitch, with Perisic heading a free kick across goal for Gvardiol to score with a diving header in the seventh minute.
Two minutes later, Achraf Dari took advantage of the deflected ball off Modric after Hakim Ziyech’s in-swinging free kick, making it 1-1 for Morocco with a free header.