Croatia edged to a close-fought 2-1 victory over Morocco on Saturday to ensure a third-place finish at the World Cup (WC) in Qatar.
Defender Josko Gvardiol, who has been one of the standout players at the tournament, scored a header on seven minutes to hand Croatia an early lead, but Morocco fired back shortly after through a close-range header from defender Achraf Dari in what was his first international goal.
Morocco are the only African team in World Cup history to reach this stage of the competition, but they were consigned to a fourth-place finish as Croatia winger Mislav Orsic netted a superb curled effort on 42 minutes that proved to be the winner.
Croatia finished runners-up in Russia four years ago and were hoping for an unlikely return to the final in Qatar, but saw their tournament end on Tuesday in a 3-0 semifinal defeat to Argentina. Croatia previously finished third in their first-ever World Cup appearance in 1998.
“This is bronze with a golden glow. We won a tough game,” said Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, who also led the nation of just 4 million people to their runners-up finish in Russia four years ago.
“This is a medal for the Croatian people… It’s really great that we won two medals in two tournaments, big congratulations to my players.”
There were signs of nerves from Morocco early on with goalkeeper Yassine Bounou nearly scything a clearance into his own goal in just the third minute.
The second half was not as fast or feisty as the first as exhaustion after a long tournament seemed to have caught up with both teams, playing their seventh game in Qatar.
“Physically it was difficult, our players got tired, it was intense,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui said.