Croatia claims third at World Cup, beating Morocco 2-1

Croatia clinched third place at the 2022 Qatar World Cup after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Morocco on Saturday at Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar.

Croatia players celebrate at the end of the World Cup third-place playoff match between Croatia and Morocco at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Croatia clinched third place at the 2022 Qatar World Cup after a hard-fought 2-1 win over Morocco on Saturday at Doha’s Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar.

It took just seven minutes for Croatia to take the lead as Josko Gvardiol headed in the ball to open the scoring.

That header scored from outside the goal box not only gave Croatia an early lead but made Gvardiol Croatia’s youngest-ever goal scorer in the national team.

In addition to that, Gvardiol was able to score despite wearing a protective mask after coming back from a broken nose.

Like Korean national team captain Son Heung-min, Gvardiol had to wear the mask at the World Cup due to an injury that he had sustained beforehand. Gvardiol plays for German side RB Leipzig and broke his nose after colliding with defensive teammate Willi Orban during their 3-1 win over SC Freiburg on Nov. 10.

Morocco's Youssef En-Nesyri, left, and Croatia's Josko Gvardiol fight for the ball during the World Cup third-place playoff match between Croatia and Morocco at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Having conceded a goal so early into the match, there was no time to lose for Morocco. Just two minutes later, Morocco rallied to quickly equalize the scoring as Achraf Dari pulled off a header of his own.

While Morocco sat deep on the back foot, Croatia began possessing the ball more, and just a few minutes to the end of half time, that goal possession seemed to have amounted to Mislav Orsic’s winner in the 42nd minute.

After some clumsy defense from the Moroccan side, Orsic of Croatia found a chance from the left and lobbed the ball over Morocco’s goal keeper Yassine Bounou.

The ball curved, meeting the inside of the far post and rebounding into the other side of the net, bringing the score to 2-1. Neither club was able to add any more in the first half.

While the first half of the game suggested that the match for third place might become a goal fest, action slowed down in the second half.

But just seconds before injury time of the second half ended, Youssef En Nesyri found a way to head the ball past Croatia’s goal keeper Dominik Livakovic, but the ball swerved slightly above the post and soon the full-time whistle blew with the score unchanged.

“It was a great game, we still can’t measure what happened today. Only after a few days we will realize how big this victory is,” Croatian midfielder Mislav Orsic reportedly said after the game.

“It was the most important game of my career, and I’d like to dedicate it to my family and all the Croatian fans.”

Croatia has only qualified for the World Cup six times and have now reached the semifinals in three of them. They finished third in 1998 and second in 2018.

Croatia's Josko Gvardiol is congratulated after scoring his side's opening goal during the World Cup third-place playoff match between Croatia and Morocco at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

While Croatia finished third for the second time, Morocco missed out on becoming the first African country to win silverware at the World Cup.

“Our players got very tired,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui reportedly said after the match. “We’re going to learn a lot from this World Cup, and we know we’ll need to come back even stronger.”

Despite missing out on a medal, Morocco established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in Qatar after knocking out football powerhouses Belgium, Spain and Portugal to become the first Arab and African team to qualify for a World Cup semifinal.

For No. 22 Morocco, the 2022 World Cup was an uphill battle from the start as they were drawn in Group F and were the second lowest-ranked nation, behind No. 2 Belgium, No. 7 Spain and No. 12 Croatia. Canada was the lowest at No. 41. But one thing this World Cup has shown is that numbers are just numbers.

Morocco’s best World Cup performance prior to this year was reaching the round of 16 in 1986. After beating Spain, Morocco on Dec. 13 became the first Arab and fourth African country to make the World Cup quarterfinals.

Not only did Morocco then become the first Arab and African team to qualify for the semifinal, but they did it in spectacular fashion, keeping a clean slate against Belgium, Spain and Portugal. Defending champions France beat Morocco 2-0 on Wednesday to reach the finals.

Now all eyes are on the World Cup final that is scheduled to be held Sunday afternoon at Lusail Stadium, Qatar where France will try and defend their title against Argentina.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]