At the Khalifa International Stadium, Croatia defeated Canada 4-1 to send them home from the World Cup.
Alphonso Davies gave Canada the early advantage with the fastest goal of the competition so far, but two goals from Andrej Kramaric, along with goals from Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer, gave Croatia a well-deserved victory.
The 2018 runners-up currently lead Group F on goal differential over Morocco, with Belgium one point behind them in third and Canada eliminated from the competition with one game remaining.
Despite their hard work and inventiveness, Canada struggled against Belgium in the final third, putting them in danger of becoming just the second World Cup team to go their first five games without scoring.
But it only took 67 seconds to make sure that the record in question wasn’t matched. Tajon Buchanan delivered a beautiful cross from the right for Davies to receive, and the player timed his run perfectly to power a header into the goal from 10 yards away.
Momentarily stunned, Croatia also found it difficult to respond in a decisive way, and Canada quickly closed any gaps that did open up.
Croatia thought they were level just before the half-hour mark when Kramaric coolly finished from 10 yards and found the far bottom corner, but there was a slight offside in the buildup.
A similar opportunity was quickly created by Croatia, but Livaja’s effort was expertly blocked by Milan Borjan at his near post. However, the European nation was levelled a short while later. Ivan Perisic deftly placed the ball in Kramaric’s path, and the latter made no errors in accurately pinpointing the far corner from a sharp angle.
While Canada wasn’t necessarily on the ropes, Croatia was starting to take control. It was therefore no surprise when they doubled their lead thanks to a low finish from Livaja that he drilled with his right foot, much like Lionel Messi did against Mexico on Saturday night.
At halftime, John Herdman made two changes to his Canada XI, and one of the replacements, Jonathan Osorio, nearly marked his entry onto the field with a wonder goal before the ball agonisingly sailed wide of the far post.
The near-miss served as a wake-up call for Croatia, and they should have eliminated Canada before the hour mark had Kramaric not missed his 12-yard attempt after Luka Modric set him up.
Dominik Livakovic of Croatia was again troubled by Canada’s long-range attempts, but was able to tip Jonathan David’s incredible attempt from 25 yards over the crossbar. However, as the game entered the fourth quarter, Croatia effectively sealed the victory when Kramaric controlled a cross-field pass from Perisic and finished expertly into the far bottom corner of Borjan’s goal.
When Perisic found space inside the box, Croatia should have had a fourth goal, but Borjan stopped both the legendary member of the national team and Marcelo Brozovic on the rebound.
In the fourth minute of added time, Croatia scored the fourth goal their performance deserved after Junior Hoilett’s long-range effort narrowly missed the target.
Mislav Orsic ran unimpeded toward goal following a mistake by Kamal Miller, and he gave Majer a straightforward opportunity to score from close range to cap off one of the more outstanding performances of the competition.
Just 120 seconds into the game, Canada took the lead for the first time ever in a World Cup game, but it wasn’t enough to keep them in the game as Croatia rallied to win 4-1 at the Khalifa International Stadium. In the World Cup finals, Davies gave the Canucks their first-ever goal. However, the lead only lasted a little over 30 minutes before Kramaric’s precise goal brought Dalic’s team back into the game. The 2018 champions led 2-1 at the break thanks to Livaja’s goal in stoppage time, essentially sealing the outcome.
To their credit, Canada kept a positive attitude and tried to win the game until the very end, but mistakes at the back cost them two more goals after the break when Perisic connected with Kramaric for the second time in the match after 70 minutes, and a late Majer tap-in sealed the victory. With the three points, Dalic’s team has a chance to finish first in the group, while Canada is out.
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