search

Croatia v Morocco Preview

Croatia v Morocco Preview

Mayes Yousef

With their dreams of reaching the World Cup final dead, the third-place play-off will see Croatia and Morocco clash for bronze at Khalifa International Stadium.

This is the second meeting between the two at this World Cup, after having played a goalless draw in a Group F fixture.

Croatia have performed well against African nations in their last three World Cups, beating Cameroon 4-0 in 2014, Nigeria 2-0 in 2018, and drawing 0-0 with Morocco this year.

None of the last 19 third-place play-offs at the World Cup have gone to penalties, with only one seeing extra-time between France and Belgium in 1986.

Regardless of the result later tonight, Morocco has made history as no other African/Arab team has made it this far at the World Cup.

Kick-off is at 6pm Doha time.

Croatia line-up: Dominik Livakovic, Josip Stanisic, Josko Gvardiol, Josip Sutalo, Ivan Perisic, Mateo Kovacic, Lovro Majer, Luka Modric, Marko Livaja, Mislav Orsic, Andrej Kramaric

Morocco line-up: Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi, Achraf Dari, Jawad El Yamiq, Yahya Attiat-Allah, Bilal El Khannouss, Abdelhamid Sabiri, Sofyan Amrabat, Hakim Ziyech, Soufiane Boufal, Youssef En-Nesyri