Metro
Croatia edged Morocco 2-1 to win the third-place playoff at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Saturday.
Superb goals from Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic, either side of a Achraf Dari equaliser, were enough to seal a happy ending to the World Cup careers of Croatia’s veteran stars Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic.
The third-place playoff is considered a dead rubber, with attention more on Sunday’s final between Argentina and France.
But the game at the Khalifa International Stadium was an unusually exciting affair and far better than the goalless draw that the teams played out when they met in the opening game of Group F just 24 days ago.
Straight from kick-off both sides were at it, with highly-rated centre-back Gvardiol opening the scoring after just seven minutes with a superb diving header from Perisic’s brilliant flick on.
But almost straight from the restart, Morocco won a free-kick, ironically off Gvardiol, with Dari heading home from close range from the subsequent set piece.
Both sides continued to press, with Andrej Kramaric’s header saved and Achraf Hakimi’s cross unable to find a teammate after some fantastic play down the right-flank.
Croatia retook the lead shortly before half-time, with Orsic’s amazing curling effort finding the corner of the goal despite keeper Yassine Bounou getting a hand to the ball.
There were many close chances after the break, with Orsic’s deflected strike hitting the side netting just minutes into the second-half, while Mateo Kovacic fired wide late-on.
Tempers began to flare as the match neared its end, after Croatia were denied a clear penalty when Gvardiol was fouled in the box by Sofyan Amrabat, something VAR bizarrely chose not to review.
