Late at the night of November 28, Khalifa Stadium, In the second round of Group F of the World Cup, Croatia beat Canada 4-1, sharing four points with Morocco, but temporarily ranked first in the group with the advantage of more goals. Croatian centre-forward Kramaric performed well in this match, scoring twice with three shots on target, and the Bundesliga club Hoffenheim's efficient striker was named the best player of the game after the match.
Historically, Croatian football has produced a number of super forwards, such as Suker, who "played the violin with his left foot" at the 1998 World Cup in France, and Mandzukic in Russia in the 2018 World Cup in Russia against Croatia to reach the final. In the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the Croatian team is not optimistic about the outside world, in addition to the overall aging of the team, the forward line is not strong is an important reason. Especially in the first game of the group stage against Morocco, the Plaid Army's finishing ability in front of goal was sluggish, and the prospects were not promising.
In the second game against Canada, Croatia coach Daric chose to trust Kramaric and continue to let him play as the starting centre-forward. The Croatian No. 9, who was under pressure, finally repaid the trust of the coaching staff through his excellent performance. In the 35th minute, he scored from the far corner on the left side of the penalty area to help Croatia equalise and blow the counter-attacking horn. In the 69th minute, it was Kramaric who staged the classic action of a center forward who faked a real pass, and even stopped and swung past Canadian team central defender Miller, easily shot low into the far corner to score, and scored twice.
These two goals fully demonstrated Kramaric's keen sense of smell in front of goal. After taking the ball in the box, his choice is always reasonable and calm, and he can shoot left and right at the end, which is very confident. In fact, Kramaric originally scored three goals, and in the 25th minute of the first half he scored through a low shot after dribbling, but the video assistant referee ruled that his slightly offside goal when receiving the ball was invalidated - the big screen showed that Kramaric was only half offside. In the 71st minute, he narrowly missed a hat-trick with a tackle in front.
Kramaric became only the second Croatian player in Croatia to score two in a World Cup match, after only Mandzukic's 2014 did. Legendary superstar Suker, who won the 1998 World Cup Golden Boot, scored in every competition, but scored only one goal in every game. Croatia's No.9 is also the eighth player to score twice in this World Cup, after Mbappe, Saaka, Giroud, Ferran Torres, Richarlison, Taremi (Iran) and Enna Valencia (Ecuador) all staged double shots.
With five shots on goal, three on target, two goals and an 87 percent pass success rate, the 31-year-old Kramaric was rightfully named the best player of the game. Kramaric, who is tall, can score goals and is good at assisting, is the leading striker of Bundesliga team Hoffenheim, has been playing for six and a half years, scoring 86 goals in 191 appearances, is one of the most consistent and efficient strikers in the Bundesliga, scoring about 20 goals almost every season, and has won the Bundesliga Golden Boot and other honors.
At the national team level, Kramaric was selected for the first time after the 2014 World Cup and in the 2018 World Cup squad in Russia, scoring his first World Cup goal in the quarterfinals against Russia. After this game, he scored 24 goals in 78 appearances for the national team, becoming the Croatian team's most trusted striker at the moment.
In fact, the Croatian team has a strong midfield configuration, Modric's attacking strategy and creativity, and can calmly "feed" the forwards. As long as Kramaric stays in good form, he may be able to eat as much as he can, and Croatia with goal assurance may be able to go further.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
文内插图：新华社 等 Source: Author: Chen Hua