Vice-world champion in 2018, Croatia won 3rd place in the 2022 World Cup by beating Morocco 2-1. Surprise team of this tournament, Morocco has therefore failed to write a little more history following being the 1st African team to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.
The match started strong with 2 goals in the first 10 minutes. First of all, Croatia opened the scoring in the 7th minute thanks to a superb header from Josko Gvardiol, following an assist from the head of Ivan Perisic. But Morocco reacted quickly by scoring 2 minutes later via Achraf Dari, who took advantage of an uncontrolled header from Lovro Majer. The Croats were back in front just before half-time, in the 42nd minute, thanks to Mislav Orsic, who subtly beat Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.
The 2nd half was rather to the advantage of the Croats, but they failed to score the goal of the knockout. They might also have obtained a penalty on a Moroccan foul in the 16 meters which tripped Josko Gvardiol, but the VAR was not consulted. And less than two minutes later, Morocco missed the equalizer, Youssef En Nesyri seeing his shot repelled by a superb save from Dominik Livakovic, one of the revelations of this World Cup.
The end of the match was tense, the Moroccans even crowding around the referee in the 84th minute to challenge a decision once morest them. Finally, Abdulrahman Al-Jassim waved a card at Selim Amallah following this protest.
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