The World Cup draws to a close with Croatia vs Morocco in the third-place playoff on Saturday and Argentina vs France in the big one on Sunday.
This is a thread for the 3rd place match and Final of the 2022 FIFAWORLDCUP in Qatar, Join the discussion and share your views on the various matches.
WHAT A START TO THE THIRD PLACE MATCH! 
7’ - Gvardiol scores for Croatia (1-0)
9’ - Dari scores for Morocco (1-1)
Interesting!!!
Josko Gvardiol is just 20 years old and was one of the standout defenders of this World Cup.
He’s about to get paid 
11 - Only Lionel Messi (16) has been directly involved in more #FIFAWorldCup goals than Ivan Perisic across the last three tournaments (11 - six goals, five assists). Regularity.
1998✅
2022✅
Croatia have now placed third in the World Cup for the second time in their history, previously beating Netherlands 2-1 in the 1998 edition.
Different millennia, same skills 
2 - Croatia have only lost two of their 14 total matches across the last two #FIFAWorldCup tournaments (W6 D6): versus France in the 2018 final (2-4) and Argentina in this year’s semi-final (0-3). Granite.
Luka Modric’s game by numbers vs. Morocco:
100% long ball accuracy
100% take-on success
93% pass accuracy
83 touches
7 final third entries
6x possession won
5 duels won
4 accurate long balls
2 tackles
2 interceptions
It’s what he does.
Most top three finishes at the World Cup since 1998:
◎ 4 - France
◎ 4 - Germany
◉ 3 - Croatia
Roll on 2026.
37-year-old Luka Modric lead Croatia to a third place finish at the World Cup while playing 656 out of a possible 690 minutes. In 2018, he lead them to a runners up finish.
Croatia has three top-3 finishes since making their World Cup debut in 1998.
Remarkable achievements for a country with a population of around 4 million.
Croatia have qualified for six World Cups and they’ve medaled in three of them.
Incredible for a nation of four million people:clap:
Mateo Kovacic’s game by numbers vs. Morocco:
90% pass accuracy completed
83 touches
62 passes completed
9/10 ground duels won
6/8 long balls completed
6/6 tackles won
3/3 dribbles completed
1 key pass
Absolutely everywhere today. 
Croatia 2-1 
MoroccoCroatia beat Morocco 2-1 in the World Cup third-place playoff on Saturday to secure a top three finish in the tournament for the second consecutive edition. Runners-up in 2018, Croatia also came third in the 1998 World Cup, beating the Netherlands 2-1.
Josko Gvardiol put Croatia in front after a well-designed set-piece play. Lovro Majer lobbed a free-kick to Ivan Perisic, who peeled away from his marker to head the ball to the middle of the box where Gvardiol was perfectly positioned to nod the ball into the net with a brilliant diving header.
But it only took two minutes for Morocco to find the equaliser, also from a free-kick, as Croatia’s Majer tried to clear the ball but miscalculated his header and missed badly, setting up Morocco’s Achraf Dari, who was alone in the six-yard-box to send home a close-range header.
Croatia scored the winner three minutes from the break when Mislav Orsic netted a dipping, curled shot from just inside the area that went in off the post. They held their lead through an absorbing yet goalless second half.
