Croatia 2-1 Morocco: Luka Modric and co claim World Cup bronze with Mislav Orsic stunner
In a contest between two nations who punched above their weight at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it was Croatia who took the third place in the tournament with a 2-1 win over Morocco at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan on Saturday.
The third-place play-off was off to a lively start as Croatia’s standout defender Josko Gvardiol opened the scoring from a well-worked set piece in the seventh minute, only for another centre-back Achraf Dari to equalise for Morocco in under two minutes.
When the winner came, it was worthy of claiming a World Cup bronze medal as Mislav Orsic curled in the goal in the 42nd minute as Croatia finished on the podium for the second edition running.
Mislav Orsic only scores beautiful goals 💥
Unreal.
📺💻📱 Watch on @BBCOne, @BBCiPlayer and the BBC Sport app.#BBCWorldCup #BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/UCeYHOAhMn
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 17, 2022
Croatia made five changes to the side that lost to Argentina in the semi-finals, resting Dejan Lovren, Marcelo Brozovic and Mario Pasalic among others. Romain Saiss, Noussair Mazraoui and Azzedine Ounahi dropped out for Morocco who gave 18-year-old Bilal El Khannouss his senior debut.
The Atlas Lions began the game with a scare as goalkeeper Yassine Bounou got his pass wrong and almost ended up scoring an own goal just two minutes in. Morocco did concede five minutes later, but it was more due to a moment of genius from Croatia than any fault of Walid Regragui’s men.
Lovro Majer dinked forward a freekick to Ivan Perisic who flicked the ball across the goal for Gvardiol to find the back of the net with a diving header. Croatia’s lead, however, only lasted less than two minutes as Morocco equalised from another dead ball situation.
Hakim Ziyech’s delivery into the box took a deflection and fell kindly for Dari who headed in from close range to draw Morocco level. Playing what could very well be his final World Cup match, Luka Modric troubled Bounou with a low drive from the edge of the box in the 24th minute.
Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri was getting into good positions for Morocco up front, but Achraf Hakimi failed to pick out the unmarked attacker after marching into the box in the 29th minute. En-Nesyri did connect with a Ziyech corner eight minutes later, but could not direct his header towards goal.
They will come to rue those missed opportunities as Orsic would silence the Moroccan supporters three minutes before the break. Morocco gave possession away at the edge of the box and Orsic made full use of it by curling in a shot from the left side of the box that went in off the far post.
Two minutes into the restart, Orsic almost scored a second as his strike deflected off Jawad El Yamiq and kissed the side netting. However, the second half failed to match the tempo of the first as both sides struggled with fatigue and injuries.
Zlatko Dalic and his staff were up in arms as the referee waved away shouts for a penalty after Gvardiol went down inside the box under a challenge from Sofyan Amrabat in the 74th minute. And while the Croatians were still protesting, an unmarked En-Nesyri almost poked in an equaliser, only to be denied by Dominik Livakovic.
Morocco had one final chance to take the game into extra time as En-Nesyri’s towering header in the sixth minute of the second-half stoppage time failed to hit the target, meaning Croatia finished third at a World Cup for the first time since their debut 1998 campaign in France.
