Saturday, December 17, 2022 – 9:14 PM
Doha, December 17, WAM / The Croatian national football team won third place in the 2022 World Cup, by defeating its Moroccan counterpart 2-1 today, in the match to determine the third and fourth places in the World Cup.
This is the second time that the Croatian team won the World Cup bronze after winning the same position in the 1998 edition in France, while its best position in the tournament was in the last edition in 2018 in Russia.
Despite its defeat in today’s match, the Moroccan national team achieved fourth place, which is its best position in the history of its participation in the World Cup, noting that it achieved an unprecedented achievement in the current version and became the first Arab and African team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup throughout the history of the tournament.
The Croatian national team finished the first half in its favor with two goals scored by Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic in the 7th and 42nd minutes, against a goal scored by Ashraf Dari in the 9th minute, to be Dari’s first goal with the Moroccan national team in international matches.
Jvardiol (20 years and 328 days) with his goal today became the youngest Croatian player to score a goal in the World Cup, ahead of Ivica Olic, who scored a goal for the team in the 2002 World Cup at the age of 22 years and 267 days.
The second half witnessed some attempts by the Moroccan team to return to the result, but they did not result in anything, and the most prominent of them was through Youssef Al-Nusairi in the 75th minute, but the Croatian goalkeeper tackled them, then the ball bounced off the post, so the match ended with the victory of the Croatian team.
Ahmed Al-Boutli / Ahmed Zahran