Croatia vs Morocco LIVE: World Cup third-place play-off team news and line-ups as Luka Modric starts
Morocco ready for rematch against Croatia and Modric
Walid Regragui on Croatia: “We knew Croatia were going to be one of the best teams in the competition. After the first game (where Morocco and Croatia drew 0-0 in the group stage) we knew the performance was very good.
“A lot of people said Croatia were approaching the end of their cycle and would have the rug swept out from under their feet. Croatia got stick for not beating ‘underdogs’ Morocco but both teams reached the semi-final.
“There was a lot of hesitation for the first game… Both teams will want to win it (on Saturday) and it will be a great game.”
“I don’t know if it’s Modric’s last game, he’s a competitive warrior and will want to finish his World Cup in style. When he wants to finish on a great note, we should be wary.
“Hats off to Modric. What he’s doing at 37 is monumental. He was a Ballon d’Or winner and I completely understand why.”
Croatia vs Morocco: Team news as Modric starts final World Cup match
Croatia and Morocco made several changes to their starting lineups for their World Cup third-place playoff at Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday, with both coaches giving opportunities to players benched during the tournament.
Morocco will be without skipper Romain Saiss who lasted only 21 minutes in the semi-final defeat by France before he was substituted, with head coach Walid Regragui saying it was a risk worth taking at the time but not for the playoff.
“We won’t be taking risks… especially Saiss. He’s been ruled out. But I’m confident and trust in our group,” Regragui had said on the eve of the game.
In defence, Achraf Hakimi and Jawad El Yamiq retain their place, with Achraf Dari and Yahya Attiat-Allah coming in for the injured Saiss and Nayef Aguerd.
Croatia skipper Luka Modric starts in midfield alongside Mateo Kovacic, but Marcelo Brozovic sits out with Lovro Majer coming in. Marko Livaja and Mislav Orsic start in attack.
Croatia vs Morocco: Starting line-ups
Confirmed line-ups
Croatia XI: Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Perisic; Modric, Kovacic, Majer; Orsic, Kramaric, Livaja
Morocco XI: Bono, Hakimi, Dari, El Yamiq, Attiat-Allah, Amrabat, El Khannouss, Ziyech, Sabiri, Boufal, En-Nesyri
-Morocco’s World Cup run is like Croatia’s four years ago, says Dalic
Croatia are preparing for a “huge” match against Morocco in Saturday’s World Cup third-place playoff with the African team’s surprise run to the semi-finals reminiscent of Croatia’s own success at the 2018 tournament, coach Zlatko Dalic said
Morocco, punching above their weight, beat Belgium and Canada in the group stage before eliminating 2010 world champions Spain on penalties in the last 16 and then beating 2016 European champions Portugal in the quarter-finals.
Morocco’s dream run ended in the last four against France, who had beaten surprise finalists Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final, but they still became the first African and Arab country to reach a World Cup semi-final.
African football had suffered a crisis of confidence after the last World Cup in Russia, when none of the five teams made it out of the group phase, but that has now all changed with the performance of Walid Regraguis team in Qatar.
“Morocco resemble us from four years ago. No one expected them to reach this stage,” Dalic said. “They deserve to be here. They will be a more challenging opponent than in the first match.”
“They have grown in self-confidence and are motivated. For both it is a huge and major match.”
Morocco take over a World Cup that should always have been theirs
Morocco at last have their World Cup. The country that has spent so long trying to host the competition have probably gone one better and made themselves the story of this one.
It was a quite beautiful thing at Education City, that bore witness to a nation-making moment. That was what was most of all symbolised by the victorious Moroccan players bowing in front of their exuberant supporters, a moment of communion.
“When you have a heart, energy and love, you win matches,” mastermind head coach Walid Regragui said.
And yet there is a complicated truth to the pure joy of Morocco’s moment.
Morocco take over a World Cup that should always have been theirs
Morocco have long tried to host the world’s biggest football tournament but have made themselves the story of this one with their performances in Qatar
Everything wrong with the Qatar World Cup
ut of the many facts and figures circulated about Qatar’s problems, there is one realisation that should stand above everything. It is a disgrace that, in 2022, a country can host a World Cup where it has lured millions of people from the poorest countries on earth – often under false pretences – and then forced them into what many call “modern slavery”.
And yet this has just been accepted. The World Cup carries on, an end product of a structure that is at once Orwellian and Kafkaesque. A huge underclass of people work in an autocratic surveillance state, amid an interconnected network of issues that make it almost impossible to escape. “It’s all so embedded,” says Michael Page of Human Rights Watch.
Everything wrong with the Qatar World Cup
How did Qatar get the World Cup?
World Cup 2022: Best moments, disappointments and players of the tournament in Qatar
Argentina and France have emerged as finalists for the World Cup 2022 after some enthralling football.
There have been plenty of upsets in Qatar, while some of the world’s best have dazzled throughout the tournament.
After Saudi Arabia delivered Argentina a shock, Lionel Messi has carried his country to the final, looking for redemption after heartache in the final eight years ago against Germany in Rio de Janeiro.
From the best moments, the most outstanding player (no surprises here) and the verdict on England and Wales, who both shared disappointment.
Here Independent Sport breaks down the best and worst from Qatar:
Best World Cup moments, disappointments and players of the tournament
Argentina and France meet at the Lusail Stadium in Doha for the biggest prize in world football
Lionel Messi’s day of destiny is a rare shot at World Cup final redemption
In the Argentina camp, there’s an encouraging line they’ve now heard from Lionel Messi a lot through this World Cup, but that has some lament to it. The 35-year-old has been repeatedly saying how much he is enjoying this World Cup, before occasionally offering a wistful caveat.
“I would have liked to enjoy more of the games with the national team.”
Some of that sentiment is down to the “s***” he says the team suffered after the shock defeat to Saudi Arabia. Some of it is down to everything that came before, and the circus around a significant number of those 171 international appearances. There were the three lost finals between 2014 and 2016, with Messi admitting to friends he has woken up in the middle of the night thinking of the Maracana eight years ago, when Argentina lost to Germany in the World Cup final. There was all the pressure, even some bad feeling.
For Lionel Messi, it all comes down to this
Few get a second attempt at the greatest game in football but Messi has earned the chance to complete his story when Argentina face France in Sunday’s World Cup final
How Julian Alvarez became Argentina’s perfect foil for Lionel Messi
It is not often that a World Cup final comes around and a team playing in the North West Counties First Division South has a direct interest. Abbey Hey, based in Gorton in south east Manchester and not far at all from the Etihad Stadium, are awaiting the return of their two highest-profile players Rafael and Agustin Alvarez from international duty. Their younger brother Julian’s international duty, to be precise.
Just as Julian Alvarez’s family followed him to Manchester, they followed him to Qatar, and that meant the budding careers of his brothers in English football’s tenth tier had to be put on hold for however long Argentina remained at the tournament. At least Rafael and Agustin – or ‘Punchi’ and ‘Turron’, as they are known among the Alvarez family – have not missed much.
How Julian Alvarez became Argentina’s perfect foil for Lionel Messi
Alvarez was only expected to play a minor part in Qatar. Instead, he has achieved about as much as any Argentina player not called Lionel can expect: second billing
Didier Deschamps’ most masterful work has been uniting a divided football nation
Liberte, Egalite, Dynastie? A particularly prominent Parisian believes so. “Over the past 20 years you can say France is the top footballing country in the world,” Walid Regragui said. “They have the best players and the best coaches and they are the best team in the world.”
As France approach their fourth final in the last seven World Cups, aiming to become the first team to retain the title since Brazil in 1962, perhaps football is coming home. The World Cup, after all, was created by a Frenchman, Jules Rimet. As Didier Deschamps bids to join Pele in the select band of the three-time winners, a second Frenchman has come to assume a similar importance in the competition. France’s success owes much to one man, captain in 1998, manager in 2018 and 2022, on the brink of history again.
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