Croatia vs Morocco: Preview & Prediction

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Match Preview:

Most football fans would be able to name past World Cup winners and runners up but that task becomes more difficult if they had to name who came 3rd and 4th because the Third Placed Play-Off game has always come across like the dead rubber game that it is. It’s highly questionable that nations really care about coming 3rd or 4th they just know that they were knocked out of a competition they wanted to win and some players will have the mindset of wishing they were back home. 

However enough of the negative and let’s look to the positives. For a lot of fans both Croatia and Morocco really lit up the tournament and caused quite a few surprises and for that they will be welcomed back for one last time. Croatia will start as the favourites but this looks like being a very close game indeed. Croatia were beaten in the semi-finals by Argentina which marked a backwards step for the nation who had beaten beaten Argentina 3-0 at the 2018 World Cup. This time they were knocked out by the same score line. All eyes will be on Luka Modric the legendary player who again had a very good World Cup and at 37 this match is set to be the Real Madrid players last hurrah at the World Cup and he may very well quit international football too.

Morocco have caused more of a ripple than Croatia at Qatar 2022 given that Croatia were a known force who had made it to the final in 2018. But Morocco were not even expected to get out of their group let alone make it to the semi-finals, it has been an incredible journey for the Atlas Lions. In the semi’s against France they played well and really should have scored but they were outclassed in the end by the current world champions France and lost the game 2-0. It was no real surprise however in conceding to France it was the first time they had done so since the group stages when they beat Canada 2-1 and it was the first ‘proper’ goal that they had let in given the one against the Canadians was an own goal. Morocco just kept on surging on throughout the competition and although they looked quite light up front they defended superbly at times and laid waste to Spain and Portugal in the knock out stages, no easy feat at all. 

Team News:

Croatia: Marcelo Brozovic could be assessed but he has a muscle injury and is a major doubt. Gvardiol looks set to miss out with a foot injury.

Morocco: Nayef Aguerd and Romain Saiss stalwarts of this team are out injured. There are no other injury concerns for the nation.

Croatia vs Morocco Head to Head:

The teams of course played in the group stages of this World Cup and that match finished 0-0.

They have only met once before which was 26 years ago and that game finished 2-2.

Croatia vs Morocco Prediction:

When the two sides met last time out in the group stages the game finished 0-0 but let’s dive deeper. It was a match dominated at least by possession for Croatia and there were not many clear cut chances just four shots on target in the end, 2 for Croatia and 2 for Morocco. What is interesting is that Croatia had almost double the amount of passes compared to the Africans and we could see this game play out the same way. 

Croatia will have a lot of the ball and Morocco will defend and organise as we know how well they can, but there just isn’t a real end game for either team and this one could peter out. On the other scale if both teams can see the game for what it is it could well be entertaining and end to end because it doesn’t have to be taken so seriously although at the end of the day coming 3rd might make the nations proud, probably more so for Morocco. Alas we will be backing Morocco to battle to a win or draw as we just feel this game will mean more to them than Croatia.

Croatia vs Morocco Betting Tips:

Double chance (Draw or Morocco) at 1.64

Anytime goalscorer: Hakim Ziyech at 4.30

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