Luka Modric signed off his international career with the consolation prize of a Qatar 2022 bronze medal as Croatia once again displayed their class by defeating Morocco 2-1 in a play-off on Saturday to secure their third top-three finish at the World Cup.
The team led by Zlatko Dalic finished second to France four years ago, and with a third-place result to go along with their victory in their competition debut in 1998, they firmly established themselves as one of the top footballing nations.
In the 7th minute, the masked man, Josko Gvardiol headed the ball home from a perfectly executed freekick to open the scoring.
That lead ended in two minutes when Achraf Dari headed home from a loose ball and it was game on from there.
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Croatia who were bent on ending the tournament on a high note tried creating several chances and were in firm control.
Their perseverance paid off in the 42nd minute thanks to a beautiful finish from Mislav Orsic, who arced the ball over the goalie from just inside the left edge of the penalty area, the shot coming in off the far post.
Early in the second half, as Croatia sought to score a third goal against the nation that advanced to the World Cup semi-finals for the first time from Africa, a deflected Orsic shot from 20 yards rippled the side netting.
Croatia maintained Europe’s dominance of this fixture, with European teams having now won 11 consecutive third-place games at the World Cup, Brazil’s 2-1 win over Italy in 1978 being the last time a team from another continent took the honours.
This was Modric’s 19th and last World Cup game of his stellar career. In Qatar, he became the first outfield player aged 37 or over to play in more than six games in a single World Cup.
While Modric has confirmed this will be his last appearance on this stage.
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