Hope of Africa securing a third place for the first time in the FIFA world cup tournament was dashed yesterday, as her representative, the Moroccan team, the Atlas Lion suffered a 2-1defeat in the hands of the Croatians.
The third place match which was played at the Khalifa International Stadium raised much expectations from both the Arab and African nations, but their opponent, Croatia, left nothing to chance to secure their third medal in six World Cups.
It would be recalled that both nations lost to Argentina and France in the semi-finals, with Croatia coming out on top thanks in no small part to Josko Gvardiol and Mislav Orsic.
Croatia took the lead from a set-piece just 7 minutes into the game, with Gvardiol executing a stunning flying header to mark his first World Cup goal at the age of 20.
However, Croatia’s lead didn’t last long as Morocco got back to level terms just 2 minutes later when Achraf Dari got on the end of Hakim Ziyech’s cross to score his first international goal.
Mislav Orsic produced an outrageous curling finish on the stroke of halftime which proved to be the winning goal as Croatia fought hard to preserve their lead in the second half to ultimately secure the bronze medal.
However divergent reactions have continued to trail the officiating of the match. While a handful of the Moroccan supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the poor officiating of the match, they singled out the Referee for sanction by FIFA, others believed that the Croatian team was technically superior.
But then, Croatia should have gotten two penalties in the second period, one for a foul on Gvardiol and another for a blatant handball.
In the 77th minute when Gvardiol was technically through on goal, Morocco’s Sofyan Amrabat clearly committed a foul to prevent the defender from scoring, but surprisingly the VAR did nothing.
Few minutes later, Morocco’s Jamad El Yamiq handled the ball but yet again, the VAR did nothing.
At least, one of these should have earned Croatia a penalty but the referee and VAR decided not to act.
FIFA should step in and demote the officials on duty today because if they are not punished, they could repeat such blunder in another high-profile match.
