Luka Modric’s Croatia beat Canada 4-1, but will have to play the pass for the round of 16 on the last day against Belgiumwho previously surprisingly lost to Morocco 2-0.

Alphonso Davies opened the scoring from their start, but Andrej Kramaric, Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer came from behind for Croatia, who lead Group F with 4 points, like Morocco, behind the 3 Belgians, while Canada, unmarked, is already eliminated.

“It’s a special moment. A World Cup double is not something that happens every day. It’s also a very important victory for the team, but nothing has been won, we still have a match against Belgium pendingsaid Kramaric.

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The surprising victory of Morocco adds much more emotion to this group, in which Croats and Belgians (respectively vice-champion and third of the last World Cup), They will play everything on the last day, next Thursdayand the danger that the losing team will be eliminated, as long as the North African team does not lose against Canada, already without options.

The match at Khalifa International Stadium started with another surprise, since it was Canada who opened the scoring from the start. Tajon Buchanan overflowed down the left and his cross into the heart of the box was headed into the net by Alphonso Davies.

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Canada’s goal was the fastest of the World Cup

The Bayern Munich player’s goal is historic for Canada, as it This is the first of this country in the World Cup. His participation in the World Cup so far was four games (three in Mexico in 1986 and one in Qatar, a 1-0 loss against Belgium) with four defeats, six goals against and none for.

This goal gave wings to the Canadians, also physically superior, preventing the Croats from developing games. The Europeans can also appreciate the lack of technical quality of the Canadians in the last pass, since in a few blocks the Americans could still have struck.

Croatia took 22 minutes to endanger Canada’s goal defended by Milan Borjanin a pass into the box from Mateo Kovacic that Marko Livaja did not reach with enough force to finish.

Little by little, Croatia increased the pressure until they equalized. The first Kramaric scored, but it was called off for offside by the teammate who gave him the pass, Livaja, who seconds later had another clear which Borjan took with his knee. Finally, Ivan Perisic found Kramaric on the left, who crossed with a left foot out of reach for the Canadian keeper to equalise.

Yes Just before the break, the Balkans completed the comeback in an overflow on the right side from winger Josip Juranovic, who gave in to Livaja and he beat Borjan from the front with a low right hand near the post.

Between, Kramaric was able to condemn, but his shot after a cross from Luka Modric deflected Borjan for a corner.

The German striker from Hoffenheim waited 70 minutes to bring down his opponentin a beautiful individual game: Ivan Perisic crosses from the right to the far post and the Croatian ‘9’ moves away from the goal with a lot of control and places the ball close to the post, far from Borjan’s reach.

Croatian win could have been biggersince in the last stretch of the match, the Balkans had several chances against, even if they only took advantage of Majer to put the final 4-1.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done. We will be disappointed tomorrow, it’s normal to be competitors, but we wrote part of the sporting history of our countrysaid Canadian coach John Herdman.

AFP

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