World Cup: Croatia defeats Morocco 2-1 in 3rd place consolation match
Game came ahead of Sunday's final between Argentina and France
Croatia beat Morocco 2-1 on Saturday in the third place consolation match of the World Cup in Qatar.
Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic hit the back of the net for Croatia while Achraf Dari struck for Morocco with the north African country's sole goal. Orsic kicked in the winner late in the first half after Gvardiol's header in the seventh minute gave Croatia an early lead before Dari evened the score right after.
Luka Modric captained Croatia while Hakim Ziyech captained Morocco, which put on display a furious attempt to rally but Croatia's defense held steady to secure a third place finish in the World Cup.
"It's a bronze medal but for us it's like a gold medal," Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said after the match.
Morocco is the first African or Arab team to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.
"It's a bitter defeat but I think it's deserved," said Walid Regragui, Morocco's coach. "We have a team that never gave in. We'll remember a lot of matches, we're going to come back stronger. We've united our country for a month, everybody was happy."
The match at Khalifa International Stadium in the capital Doha came ahead of the highly anticipated final taking place on Sunday between Argentina led by Lionel Messi and France led by Kylian Mbappé. That match is set to kick off at 6 p.m. local time at Lusail Stadium north of Doha.