Croatia defeated Morocco in the third place playoff match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar to finish as bronze winners.
The last edition’s finalists had failed to reach the final after losing 3-0 to Argentina while Morocco were also beaten 2-0 by last edition’s champions France.
Croatia sealed a 2-1 victory in the entertaining encounter at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan on Saturday.
Josko Gvardiol gave Croatia the lead on seven minutes, Achraf Dari leveled just two minutes later through a header, before Mislav Orsic curled in the winner three minutes before half-time.
Morocco would go home proud of sealing a World Cup record, having become the first African team to reach the semifinal in the tournament’s history.
Croatia finish on the podium for the third time, after a third place in 1998 and a second place in 2018. This was their sixth World Cup participation.
The third-place play-off of the World Cup has been won by a European nation on 17 of the 20 occasions. The other wins were by Brazil (1938, 1978) and Chile (1962).
The Qatar tournament comes to an end on Sunday after 63 games, with one game remaining – the big one as Argentina play France in the final from 4:00pm Nigeria time.