DOHA; Giant-killers Morocco will take on Croatia in the third-place play-off in the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 at the Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan, on Saturday.
The match will kick-off at 7 pm (Oman Time).
It may be potentially the last World Cup match for Croatian midfield maestro Luka Modric. Croatia’s famed midfield including Ivan Pericic, Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic and Nikola Vlasic will also aim to end the Qatar campaign with a win.
On the other side, history-makers Morocco led by coach Walid Regragui none-the-less need a third-place finish to crown their phenomenal Qatar 2022 tournament.
Regragui said the semifinal against France was a great lesson for him and players.
“We gave our full effort in the match. We made some mistakes that were well taken advantage of by a talented and experienced French side.”
He said it would have been better if all his top players were available against France.
“Unfortunately, we missed some of our top-class players in the semis. Our captain Romain Saiss pulled his muscle and came off early. It would have been great if we had their services. But sometimes it is like that. We accept the result and it is a great lesson for the players and me as a coach,” Regragui said.
He said the squad will aim to complete the campaign with a win.
“We wanted to reach the final. However, now we are playing a strong Croatian side and we would love to end the campaign with a third place. It will greatly help to improve our Fifa ranking too.”
Croatian coach Zlakto Dalic said it was disappointing to miss the final but they are ready for the play-off.
“We are mentally ready for the third-place match. We will try to finish our campaign with a win. It will be good for some of our great generation of players who don’t have age on their sides as well.”
Croatia and Morocco are meeting for the second time in this World Cup as they both seek a victorious conclusion to a memorable campaign in Qatar. Their first encounter, in the opening Group F fixture, ended goalless. The nations' only other meeting was also a draw, 2-2 in Casablanca in 1996 – though Croatia prevailed 7-6 on penalties.
While this fixture is new territory for Morocco – and indeed any African team – Croatia took the bronze medals on their finals debut in 1998, when they defeated the Netherlands 2-1 in Paris. This is the second successive Fifa World Cup third-place play-off between teams who also met in the group stage, Belgium and England having also done so in 2018.
Croatia have yet to concede a goal against African opposition at the World Cup, wins against Cameroon (4-0 in 2014) and Nigeria (2-0 in 2018) preceding this year's stalemate against Morocco.
KEY FACTS
Croatia are unbeaten in their previous three Fifa World Cup matches against African nations (W2 D1) and kept clean sheets in each of those matches.
Croatia have lost only two of their last 22 international matches (W12 D8).
Victory for Morocco would see them record the best finish of a non-European or South American nation in the Fifa World Cup since 1930, when the USA finished third (note: there was no match for third place in 1930, the US finished third via their overall record at the 1930 finals).
There has never been a penalty shoot-out in the play-off for third place in a Fifa World Cup final competition.
If selected, Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi will become the first Moroccan players to reach ten World Cup appearances.
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