- It's official now. Croatia are the third-place holders of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. They beat Morocco, thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic
- Croatia lead Morocco 2-1 at half-time in third place playoff
- Achraf Dari equalises for Morocco in the 9th minute against Croatia in 3rd place playoff. Score 1-1
- Croatia get an early breakthrough as Josko Gvardiol perfectly unleashes a header towards the target, which dodges the goalkeeper and gets placed into the nets. Croatia take 1-0 lead over Morocco.
Luka Modric earned his 162nd cap as he was named in the starting XI for Croatia in Saturday's World Cup third-place play-off against Morocco at the Khalifa International Stadium. Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic made five changes from the team beaten 3-0 by Argentina in the semi-finals, bringing Lovro Majer into the midfield in place of Marcelo Brozovic. Hakim Ziyech is captaining Morocco, with Romain Saiss among the substitutes after injury forced him off early in the 2-0 semi-final loss to France.
Motivation key in race for bronze, says Walid Regragui
To some, it’s little more than a meaningless exhibition match. To others, it’s much more than that.
The third-place playoff at the World Cup can be a confusing concept.
“You are so disappointed, you’ve just lost a semi-final and then two days later, you have to go back out there,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui said on Friday.
Regragui’s history-making team — the first African nation to reach the World Cup semis — will play Croatia on Saturday at Khalifa International Stadium.
“It’s like the booby prize,” Regragui said. “I am sorry for speaking like this. I understand that it should be important, I understand that it is better to finish third than fourth, but for me, my takeaway is that we just didn’t get to the final.”
Croatia (3-5-2) - Dominik Livakovic; Josip Stanisic, Josko Gvardiol, Josip Sutalo; Mislav Orsic, Lovro Majer, Luka Modric (capt), Mateo Kovacic, Ivan Perisic; Marko Livaja, Andrej Kramaric; Coach: Zlatko Dalic (CRO)
Morocco (4-1-2-3) - Yassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Achraf Dari, Jawad El Yamiq, Yahya Attiat Allah; Sofyan Amrabat; Abdelhamid Sabiri, Bilal El Khannouss; Hakim Ziyech (capt), Youssef En Nesyri, Sofiane Boufal; Coach: Walid Regragui (MAR)