Croatia eventually won the third place in Qatar.
In a rather "open" three- or four-place final, Croatia, the runners-up of the previous edition, had the last laugh.
In the early morning of December 18, Beijing time, at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Croatia defeated Morocco 2-1, eventually becoming the third place in this World Cup. Although Morocco finished fourth, it still set the best result for an African team in the World Cup.
In France 24 years ago, Croatia won third place in the World Cup for the first time, and now the 37-year-old Modric is leading the "Plaid Army" to relive old dreams.
Morocco coach Regraj stressed before the match that he "will do his best to fight for third place".
Both sides stressed before the match to "go all out to win"
Morocco, the biggest "dark horse" of the World Cup, lost 2-0 to France and missed the final, and after the match, Moroccan officials appealed the referee's decision in the match, including a suspected kick against Buffair in the first half of the Special Olympics penalty area, and the referee finally awarded Buffair a foul and gave the Moroccan attacker a yellow card.
Even so, Morocco has already achieved the best result for an African team in the World Cup, with coach Regragi still saying the team will fight for third place: "It's not a final we want to play, but it's also important, we'll do our best to finish third, but right now we're a little exhausted. I don't need to motivate the players because they know the game is important, Croatia will know that Morocco deserves respect and we will fight for the third place until the end. ”
In the group stage opener, Morocco played Croatia, and the two sides exchanged white rolls. The third place match is again where the two sides clashed, replicating the same situation in the last World Cup, when Belgium and England, who met in the group stage, met in the final of three or four places, and Regraghi spoke highly of Croatia: "The mentality of the Croats is very good, and they only have 4 million people, but the players are playing for the best clubs in the world. We'll see if there's an improvement from the first one, where Modric played well and he was a real winner. ”
Modric has made several records in Qatar.
Modric continued to start this game and, at the age of 37 years and three months, became the oldest non-goalkeeper to play all seven games in a single World Cup. Croatia's starting lineup retains Livakovic, Gvadior, Kovacic, Perisic, Kramaric and other main players; Croatia have kept clean sheets against African teams in their previous three World Cup matches. These included a 0-0 win over Nigeria in the group stage and a 4-0 victory over Cameroon in the 2014 World Cup.
Morocco's two main centre-backs, Seth and Agud, are absent due to injury, while Bunou, Ashraf, Amrabat, Ziyeh, Fabre and Ennesiri continue to start, marking Morocco's 10th World Cup appearance for both Ziyech and Ashraf, equalling Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Al Dayayaya as the Arab player with the most World Cup appearances.
Head coach Dalic also expressed an attitude to go all out to win.
Like Reglaghi, Dalic coach also expressed an all-out attitude to win: "Croatia won its first medal at the 1998 World Cup, which was a big event and a lot of significance. Last time we finished runner-up, but every World Cup has a lot of meaning and we want to finish third and make our country happy. ”
Gwadior opened the scoring in the race.
Open three or four finals, wonderful goal battles
According to the German transfer market website, the starting value of the two sides is 203 million euros for Croatia and 139 million euros for Morocco. In terms of age, the average starting age in Croatia is 27.4 years old, and Morocco is 26 years old.
Interestingly, not only are the two teams not much different in terms of average age and value, but they have not been "good at scoring in regular time" in previous games.
However, in the history of the World Cup, the three- and four-place finals have always been quite open offensive and defensive styles, and even Croatia and Morocco, who are good at defense, have continued this style in this game.
Darry scored to equalise for Morocco.
In the 7th minute of the game, Croatia's free-kick tactics, Modric feinted, Mayer took a free kick, Perisic headed over, Gvadi Orfish jumped over to score, the deadlock was broken, Croatia took the lead. Gervadior, whose specific age today is 20 years and 328 days, became Croatia's youngest World Cup scorer.
In the 9th minute, Mayer made a mistake and Darry scored to give Morocco a 1-1 equaliser.
In the 42nd minute, Croatian attacker Orcić, who played for Yatai, shot through the Moroccan goal. Croatia led 2-1 to end halftime.
Orcić scored a brilliant goal with a shot.
In the 60th minute, Croatian striker Kramaric fell to the ground due to injury, and after emergency treatment by the team doctor, he was still unable to hold on to the game and was eventually substituted. On the exit, Kramaric did not control his emotions and shed tears.
Kramaric came off the field injured and covered his face and cried.
Since then, several players in the Moroccan team have suffered injuries of varying degrees, and coach Regrage has subsequently transferred troops and made a series of adjustments.
After 70 minutes into the game, physical contact became more frequent and intense, with Croatian Gervadior falling to the ground in the Moroccan penalty area, but the referee did not award a penalty.
Gervadior fell to the ground in the Moroccan penalty area.
Morocco's Ashraf was knocked down on the edge of Croatia's penalty area, but the referee also did not award a penalty for the collision.
In the last 10 minutes of the game, Morocco, still hoping to win, fought back with all their might, but could not turn the attack into a goal. Finally, when the referee's final whistle blew the score, the score was finally frozen at 2-1.
For Morocco, they still set the best result for an African team in a World Cup. For Croatia, although their results in Qatar were not as good as in the previous edition in Russia, they still won third place in the World Cup for the second time in their history. Bidding farewell to the World Cup with such results is also an acceptable ending for the 37-year-old Modric.