To many people’s surprise Morocco topped Group F with seven points, while Croatia finished second with five points.
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Croatia will be taking on an inspired Morocco side in Saturday’s third-placed playoff of the FIFA World Cup 2022. The contest at the Khalifa International Stadium will see two teams that were not predicted by many to reach this far in the tournament. Ideally none of these sides would be wanting to play on Saturday, as their heart would have been set on reaching the final on Sunday. Nonetheless, the two losing semi-finalists have to keep their disappointments aside and go one last time in Qatar to secure a respectable third-place finish.
| Croatia vs Morocco | Key details |
| Date | December 17 |
| Venue | Khalifa International Stadium |
| Kickoff time in India | 8:30 pm |
| Kickoff time in Croatia | 4 pm |
| Kickoff time in Morocco | 4 pm |
| Kickoff time in Qatar | 6 pm |
It is to be noted that both countries started out from the same group. To many people’s surprise Morocco topped Group F with seven points, while Croatia finished second with five points as favourites Belgium were knocked out in the group stage. Then they embarked on an incredible knockout round, which saw Morocco upset Spain and Portugal, while Croatia stunned favourites Brazil in the quarter-finals. However, the Europeans were outplayed by Lionel Messi and Argentina in the semi-finals, and a spirited Morocco were beaten by defending champions France.
Read More – Croatia vs Morocco: Records, Stats, Goals, Head to Head & everything to know
Following a long tournament in Qatar, it is expected to see both sides having to deal with a few injury concerns. Croatia will keep an eye on Josko Gvardiol’s fitness situation before deciding his chances of making it into the XI. They will also be sweating over the injury of midfielder Marcelo Brozovic. On the other hand, Morocco’s concerns remain over the fitness situation of their three important players. At this point it is unclear if any of Nayef Aguerd, Noussair Mazraoui and Romain Saiss could be involved from the start in the third-placed playoff.
Croatia possible line-up: Livakovic, Juranovic, Lovren, Sutalo, Sosa, Brozovic, Modric, Kovacic, Vlasic, Perisic, Kramaric
Morocco possible line-up: Bono, Hakimi, Dari, Yamiq, Attiyat-Allah, Mazraoui, Amrabat, Ounahi, Ziyech, Boufal, En-Nesyri
Croatia
| Opponents | Score |
| Argentina | 3-0 (L) |
| Brazil | 1-1 (4-2 on pens) (W) |
| Japan | 1-1 (1-3 on pens) (W) |
| Belgium | 0-0 |
| Canada | 4-1 (W) |
Morocco
| Opponents | Score |
| France | 2-0 (L) |
| Portugal | 1-0 (W) |
| Spain | 0-0 (3-0 on pens) (W) |
| Canada | 1-2 (W) |
| Belgium | 0-2 (W) |
| All competitions | Results |
| Morocco draw Croatia | 0-0 |
| Morocco lose to Croatia | 8-9 on pens |
The FIFA World Cup match between Croatia and Morocco will take place at Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday at 8:30 pm IST.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar can be seen on Sports18 – 1 SD & HD – in India. Sports18 will be telecasting the games on the regular and HD Channels. Besides, Viacom18 Sports announced that JioCinema will live-stream all the World Cup games. Besides, the match between Croatia and Morocco can also be seen on HRT 2, HRTi in Croatia; and beIN SPORTS CONNECT, beIN Sports MAX 4 Arabia, TOD, Arryadia TNT, beIN Sports MAX 3 Arabia, beIN Sports MAX 1 Arabia in Morocco.
