Croatia and Morocco will meet in the World Cup third-place play-off on Saturday evening after suffering defeats in the semifinals.The 2018 finalists went down 3-0 to Argentina in the last four while France whipped Morocco 2-0 to set up a South America and a European final. Morocco and Croatia will battle it out for the bronze medal.##NAJAVA_MECA_6892967##The two teams already met in the group stage. The match ended in a barren draw as Morocco went on to top Group F while Croatia finished as group runners-up. Both showed their mantles to reach the World Cup semifinals.Heading to the Saturday playoff, Morocco will be without three injured defenders. Noussair Mazraoui, Romain Saiss, and Nayef Aguerd all went off against France and are likely to miss the match. The Atlas Lions, who have had a relatively decent defensive record at the tournament, should be able to avoid a thrashing at the tournament.For Croatia, Marcelo Brozovic who went off injured against Argentina and defender Josko Gvardiol who played needed a pain injection to play in the semis are likely to miss the Saturday action. This is after coach Zlatko Dalic made it clear that he was not going to risk a player who is not fully fit.Regragui: ‘Next time, God willing’Coach Dalic is keen on getting the bronze at the tournament and termed Saturday’s duel as a final for his side.“We are sad and disappointed, but we have to gather energy to come back and be ready for the next fight for bronze. The match on Saturday is a big final for us, not a small game. It’s a big deal if we get the bronze. We have to refresh the team and put healthy players in the team because a grand final is ahead of us,” he said during Friday’s press conference.He was also full of praise for the Atlas Lions. “Morocco is the biggest surprise of the World Cup. They’ve got national backing, unity, and compactness. They knocked out Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. They deserve all the respect.”Morocco coach, Walid Regragui on the other hand revealed that he is going to hand minutes to those who have not featured much.“I will give opportunities to those who did not participate, and we will try to clinch the third place. We realise that we made a great achievement already. We know that from the media, social media, and on TV, we saw the pictures, and we saw that everyone was proud of us in our country. We’re disappointed for the Moroccan people, we wanted to keep the dream alive, but we’re pleased with what we’ve achieved,” he said.##NAJAVA_MECA_6892967##
