World Cup 2022: Kramaric keeps Croatians on course – Canada out despite Davies’ goal

Updated 11/27/2022 at 7:49 pm

• Even an opening loss against Canada would not faze Croatia.
• Bundesliga star Andrej Kramaric is particularly confident of the vice world champion.
• Croatia was able to make an early exit from the World Cup.

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vice world champion Croatia Got a good starting position for the group final thanks to double packer Andrej Kramaric. Balkan giants strike 68 seconds through for Bayern star Alphonso Davis and defeated the Canadiens, who were celebrating the first goal in their World Cup history, 4–1 (2–1). A draw against eternal co-favourites Belgium on Thursday is enough for Luka Modric and co to secure a place in the last 16.

Hoffenheim’s Kramaric (26′, 70′), Marco Livaja (44′) and Lovro Major (90′ + 4′) turned the game around in front of 44,374 spectators at the Khalifa International Stadium. CanadaThe co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, despite a burst from Davis (another), lost the fifth game in their finals history and as the second team after hosts Qatar, to have no chance of reaching the round of 16.

pre game brawl

The game was preceded by a small brawl between the coaches. After Canada’s unfortunate opening loss to Belgium (0–1), John Herdman used the phrase “We’re going to f*** Croatia” when addressing his team. Vatreni’s coach Zlatko Dalić found out about it – and was none too pleased: “We respect everyone, so we expect our opponents to respect us too.”

Dalík’s players, on the other hand, initially held a great deal of respect from the Canadians. Davies’ powerful header, which was the first ever goal scored by a Bayern player and the fastest ever at this World Cup, gave the Croatian a wild blow after 68 seconds.

The defeated 2018 World Cup finalist with Bundesliga professional Kramrik, RB Leipzig’s Josco Guardiol and Borna Sosa (VfB Stuttgart) remained defensively vulnerable. However, Canada acted imprecisely in the final third. It should pay off soon.

Croatia can’t be bothered

The “golden mean” of the Croatian people Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic broke the strings after a good 20 minutes of play. After a one-on-one action by Kramarić (26′), the ball swung into the net, but Livaja was adjudged offside earlier.

Ten minutes later all was well when Kramarić equalised, having now qualified after a pass from Ivan Perisic. Croatia were now clearly overweight after Livaja’s long-range goal, the “checkers” were also on course for a result.

Canada threw everything forward after the break. Today’s Croatia-born goalkeeper Milan Borjan pulled off a fine save from a two-goal deficit against a free-standing Kramaric in the 54th minute. The Croat continued to play it patiently, and after a while Kramaric made everything clear from a more difficult position.

Updated 11/27/2022 at 5:26 pm

Belgium’s once-golden generation have lost their luster at the latest in a World Cup second preliminary round game – and now they fear a preliminary round defeat. The aging team around Kevin De Bruyne lost 0:2 (0:0) to Morocco, so the Red Devils also made an early jump into the round of 16. Sabiri, a former Paderborn professional, scored for underdogs Morocco.

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Teaser Image: imago/Shutterstock/imago/Kieran McManus/Shutterstock