When Canada faces Morocco in their final group game, it will only be for the culture as a 4-1 loss to Croatia made it two loss from as many games for them in Qatar and subsequent elimination from the tournament.
The North American nation waited 36 years to return to the global competition following their first appearance back in Argentina, 1986, but after just two group games, their fate is already decided.
Their much better performance in their first game in Qatar will so much hurt them because the poor result taken out of the game has in the end haunted them.
Played that first one against Belgium, the second best ranked team in the world. No one gave them a chance heading into the game but during it, they were surprisingly the better side and were awarded an early penalty to take the lead but Alphonso Davies could not convert.
The Bayern Munich player did in the end scored in the 4-1 loss to Croatia but instead of being a potential winner like it might have been against Belgium albeit it was very early to decide, it was only a consolation as Croatia went on to reply with four.
Canada were all over Belgium but it was the European side that clinched a winner as Michy Batshuayi scored the only goal of the game just before the halftime interval.
Heading into the match against Croatia, they were able to score an early goal this time as Alphonso Davies powers his header past Dominik Livakovic from a Tajon Buchanan cross after just 69 seconds into the game.
Thereon, the better chances fell to Croatia and Zlatko Dalic’s side were able to restore parity and even take the lead before the half time break.
Andrej Kramaric got the first of his brace six minutes after the half hour mark. The Hoffenheim striker connects with Ivan Perisic’s delightful pass into the area and applied a one time finish to level things at 1-1.
One minute before the halftime break, Croatia are in front with a cool finish from Marko Livaja. Josip Juranovic did excellently well and his resilient saw him set up Livaja, who made no mistake to give his country the lead for the first time in Qatar.
Andrej Kramaric complete his brace on the stroke of the 70th minute with the same Ivan Perisic assisting him with a cross into the box. Kramaric took a touch to set himself up before firing past the Goalkeeper, taking the game beyond Canada.
Lovro Majer added insult to injury late on to complete a 4-1 win for Croatia and take them up to four points after two games.
Croatia faces Belgium in their final group game and a draw will be enough to seal progress into the round of 16 while it is journey over for Canada, who would have packed their bags before their final game against Morocco on Thursday.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
