Croatia forward Andrej Kramaric could not hide his pleasure in beating Canada after a war of words in the days before kick-off.
— The question came, as expected, and Croatia forward Andrej Kramaric gave a smile, as expected.
Did the comments from Canada head coach John Herdman, about how his players were going to «f— Croatia,» serve to fire up the Croatians ahead of this critical game?
— Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
«I want to thank Canada’s coach for the motivation,» Kramaric said shortly after scoring two goals in Croatia’s 4-1 rout over Canada on Sunday, sending the North American team crashing out of the World Cup.
«We demonstrated who f—ed whom,» he added.
Canada led inside two minutes through a superb Alphonso Davies header, but Croatia hit back with two goals in the first half and another pair of strikes in the second to secure a comfortable win.
Herman’s comments ahead of the match led to a Croatian tabloid putting his face on its cover in a graphic illustration that questioned whether Canada had the guts to win the game.
