Finalists of the last FIFA World Cup , Croatia vs canada took on Canada in this all important Group F encounter in the Khalifa Stadium Qatar . It was a battle for survival for Canada as a loss would bring an end to their World Cup campaign. The game was crucial for both Croatia vs Canada as both the teams lost out in their previous encounter.
Canada drew first blood
Canada drew first blood when Alphonso Davies scored the first ever goal for them in the World Cup within the first 2 minutes from the start with an immaculate header. This goal also happened to be the fastest one till now in this World Cup. As Canada went all guns blazing right from the start, and the header from Alphonso Davies preceded another goal from him as early as 68 seconds into the match which was unfortunately cancelled. Canada’s fight throughout the match was led by him throughout the game as his game stood-out to be themost prominent one for Canada.
Croatia fires back
Canada’s glory was short lived as Croatia came back strongly into the game with 2 goals in the first half itself as Croatia established their dominance over Canada for the rest of the game with a scoreline that read 4-1 in Croatia’s favor. It was Kramaric who utilized a gem of a pass from Ivan Peresic to score the equalizer ,36th minute into the 1st half. Another 8 mins into the game, Livija utilized another pass fed to him by Kovacic to ensure Croatia take the lead in the first half itself. It was Croatia all the way since then, as they were all over Canada for the rest of the game as Kramaric and Orsic scored 2 more that ousted Canada from the World Cup.
It was team-game personified from Croatia as their ball passing and co-ordination was mesmerizing, to say the least as they proved to be too good for Canada.