Morocco and Croatia provided an entertaining and hard-fought third-place match to cap off their remarkable journeys in the 2022 World Cup.
— Wheeling out an inflatable World Cup before kick-off just felt cruel. The giant replica has been a regular feature of the prematch build-up throughout this tournament but Saturday’s third-place play-off between Croatia and Morocco was the one game that didn’t need it.
This is the only fixture where the participants know they cannot possibly win the trophy they came to compete for.
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And the fact that it takes place just a few days after the pain of a semifinal exit can make it feel like a gruesome afterthought; this was certainly the case for England and Belgium four years ago as two teams with designs on winning the tournament were made to put themselves through another 90 minutes when all they wanted to do was go home.
„It is not really an important game is it, honestly speaking,“ said Morocco coach Walid Regragui on Friday, mixed in with more positive messaging about the possibility of an African team finishing third for the first time in World Cup history.
Whether it was a competitive spirit kicking in or a sense of freedom created by the reduced stakes, Croatia and Morocco made this curious occasion a much more enjoyable affair than the last version in 2018.
There were two goals and a marriage proposal inside the opening 20 minutes. Leaving behind the drab 0-0 draw between the sides during the group phase, Luka Modric feigned to take a seventh-minute free-kick. Instead, Lovro Majer clipped a straight ball into the box which Ivan Perisic did brilliantly to twist his body and plant a header back across the box where Josko Gvardiol threw himself into the air to head past Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.
