Croatians quickly repair arrears and eliminate Canada at the World Cup

Croatia won 4-1 against Canada at the World Cup in Qatar in a lively match. That means the Canadians are out. Croatia now has four points in group F, just like Morocco, after two games.

For Belgium, this means that a victory over Croatia on the last matchday in group F is almost certainly the only possibility to advance to the next round. Only if Morocco loses to Canada by large numbers is a draw sufficient for the Belgians.

Unlike many other World Cup matches, the clean sheet was quickly off the scoreboard at Croatia-Canada. Alphonso Davies scored with his head after just one minute of play after a great cross from Tajon Buchanan.

It marked the first-ever Canadian goal at a World Cup. Davies was the schlemiel of the first game against Belgium because he missed a penalty, but now the Bayern Munich player was successful.

Croatia scored a brilliant goal with a smooth attack after 26 minutes, but Marko Livaja was offside with the first deep pass, so Andrej Kramaric’s cold-blooded finish was for nothing. It did underline the footballing ability of the Croats, who were always lurking for moments to cut through Canada’s defense.

Ten minutes later they succeeded again, but Livaja could not crown an attack set up by Luka Modric with the equalizer. A few seconds later, Kramaric succeeded. The Hoffenheim striker moved past goalkeeper Milan Borjan on a pass from Ivan Perisic: 1-1.

After the 1-1, the team of national coach Zlatko Dalic stormed through. On a pass from Josip Juranovic, Livaja scored shortly before half-time with a careful shot from distance. The damage could have been even greater for the Canadians, who were overrun in the second part of the first half, but the strong-started North Americans took the break 2-1.

Watch Croatia’s goals against Canada here:

After the break, Canada started furiously again, but it didn’t get any further than flaming shots from Jonathan David and substitute Jonathan Osorio. The Croats remained dangerous on the counter and seemed to be on their way to another hit. However, Kramaric saw a bet in the 54th minute turned up close by Borjan.

It took twenty minutes for the Croatians to finally close the game. Kramaric passed Borjan again with his second goal of the match.

The third goal against was also the moment for Canadian national coach John Herdman to take jubilarian Atiba Hutchinson to the side. The former PSV midfielder played his hundredth international match.

The Croats needed quite a few chances after the 3-1 to also score their fourth goal. Substitute Lovro Majer got the ball from another substitute, Mislav Orsic, and hit the ropes hard.