Croatia beat Morocco 2-1 in an entertaining third place playoff World Cup match played at the Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday 17th December.Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou almost gifted Croatia an own goal in the second minute of the match after he mis-kicked a pass inside the box that went out for a fruitless corner.Croatia looked the better side in the opening minutes of the match and they deservedly took the lead on six minutes. Lovro Majer swung in a beautiful free kick into the danger area that was flicked on by Ivan Perisic, Josko Gvardiol finishing off the move with a powerful header.It didn’t take long for Morocco to find the equaliser as two minutes later Achraf Dari scored in almost similar fashion, heading in a freekick swung in by Ziyech.Morocco would have taken the lead at the half-hours mark but Youssef En-Nesyri arrived just seconds later to miss a dangerous cut-in to the box by Achraf Hakimi.Croatia took the lead once again with three minutes to the breather. Mislav Orsic capitalised on Morocco’s moment of defensive confusion to curve in beautifully from the edge of the box.Second half Morocco, who coming into this match had made history by becoming the first African nation to scale to the semifinal heights of the World Cup, grew into the game and looked much better after the breather. They however couldn’t just get the equaliser.Morocco had a late penalty appeal turned down and En-Nesyri headed just over but the Atlas Lions could not find a way back after their historic run. For Croatia, they will be just content with the third-place finish after finishing second in 2018.
