The FIFA World Cup 2022 is now in its final stages. For the third place, Croatia and Morocco will be locking horns against each other at the Khalifa International Stadium on Saturday.
Croatia lost the match against Argentina in the first semifinal by 3-0. Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez starred and helped Argentina beat Croatia. Morocco on the other hand failed to deliver in the other semis fixture against France.
Here are the details of the Croatia – Morocco Clash:
1. In the 2022 World Cup, Morocco's Azzedine Ounahi has completed 77% of his attempted take-on (10/13) which is the highest rate of any player to attempt at least 10.
2. Ivan Perisic has amassed six World Cup goals for Croatia – one more would make him their outright top scorer in the competition, surpassing Davor Suker.
3. Luka Modric has featured in all six of Croatia's games at this World Cup. Only goalkeepers Peter Shilton (1990) and Dino Zoff (1982) have played more games at a single edition while aged 37+ (both 7).
4. Morocco gave more goals in their 2-0 semi-final defeat to France than they had in their previous five matches at this World Cup combined (1). They can still become the eighth team to keep as many as five clean sheets in a single tournament, after Netherlands (1974), Italy (1990), Brazil (1994), France (1998), Germany (2002), Italy (2006) and Spain (2010).
5. Croatia gave away as many goals in their 3-0 semi-final defeat against Argentina as they had in their previous five games at the 2022 World Cup combined. They've also faced more shots than any other side at this tournament (75).
6. Regardless of the result, Morocco's participation in this match is the furthest an African nation has ever reached in World Cup history.
7. This is Croatia's second third-place play-off match in the World Cup, previously beating Netherlands 2-1 in the 1998 edition.
8. None of the 19 previous third-place play-off matches at the World Cup have gone to penalties, with only one being settled in extra time (France v Belgium in 1986). A European nation has won this match in each of the last 10 editions of the tournament, since Brazil's 2-1 win over Italy in 1978.
9. Croatia have kept a clean sheet in all three of their previous World Cup matches against African sides, beating Cameroon 4-0 in 2014, Nigeria 2-0 in 2018, and drawing 0-0 with Morocco this year.
10. This is the second meeting between the two giants Croatia and Morocco at this World Cup 2022 edition. They played out a 0-0 draw on MD1. Croatia were restricted to five shots, their fewest ever in a World Cup match.