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At the Al Bayt stadium, Moroccans and Croats staged an intense and disputed duel, with few scoring chances. The last runners-up in the world found themselves with a fresh and daring rival, who stood up. Equality opens Group F, one of the closest forecasts, which also includes Belgium and Canada.
Accustomed to playing the role of surprise contender at the World Cups, Croatia arrived at Qatar 2022 with another poster. Without being a favourite, the runner-up in Russia 2018 raised the expectations of a team that combines experienced figures like Luka Modric with youngsters still establishing themselves at the highest level.
Those aspirations -perhaps more external than internal- made him a favorite against Morocco. But in no way could the ‘Atlas Lions’ be underestimated, who have a quality squad, reinforced by the returns of some of their figures. If he took out the coach who qualified him for the World Cup -Vahid Halilhodzic- just three months after the competition, it was to recover players banned by the Bosnian, with Hakim Ziyech at the helm.
Not only that, the choice of Walid Regragui, a young and successful coach in Moroccan football, sought to give him freshness and daring in the face of a more austere style advocated by Halilhodzic.
The first result of this change was encouraging for Morocco: a 0-0 draw with Croatia, including some favorable moments in the first half, allowed them to hope to sneak into the round of 16, in one of the most even groups in the tournament.
On the contrary, for those led by Zlatko Dalic the outlook darkened a bit, especially thinking of leading the area to have a cross, a priori, lighter in the next instance.
Croatia and Morocco sign a fair tie
The intensity was noticeable from the first minutes. The first approaches for each side occurred before 10 minutes, with Romain Saïss closing before Andrej Kramaric’s finish and Sofiane Boufal’s failed attempt.
Croatia, with a more positional game and better possession of the ball, found few spaces to worry Yassine Bounou. Hence, he tried with distant shots, like one from Ivan Pericia that went high.
Morocco bet on the shooting talent of Hakim Ziyech and the positioning of its center forward, Youssef En-Nesyri, who failed to connect fully on a couple of occasions.
After the North Africans showed slightly better in that first part, the European team touched the advantage at the end of the initial 45, with an arrival from Nikola Vlasic, which reduced Bounou.
The tonic was maintained in the complementary stage. Noussair Mazraoui struggled to connect with his head in ’50 – which caused him a muscle injury – but collided with Dominik Livakovic. And immediately, Bounou had to cut a dangerous cross in the six-yard box.
Little by little, both teams were losing intensity and dangerous occasions were scarce. Just a long shot from Achraf Hakimi that required Livakovic and a wide shot from Josko Gvardiol.
To assess the final 0-0, it was enough to see the faces of the fans of each team. While the Moroccans celebrated a unit that could be valid in one of the most disputed groups, the Croats were upset by a draw that could complicate their fight for qualification.
Modric: “We are going to improve as the games go by”
The best moments in Croatia, as usual, started at the feet of Luka Modric. The Real Madrid midfielder was chosen as the best player of the match, an award for which he reached out to him with flashes of his talent, although insufficient to break the score.
After the match, Modric was “sure” that “we are going to improve as the games go by”. “Morocco is a tough team to compete with,” admitted the midfielder, who lamented “not having taken advantage” of his clearest chances “in the last ten or fifteen minutes of the first half.”
“We wanted to have started the competition with a win but we didn’t achieve it. Surely it will be easier for a team like ours to play as the tournament progresses. I hope we play better”, wished the Croatian captain, who closed by recalling that “we There are two more games left and we’ll see what happens.”
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