Morocco and Croatia got off stuttering starts to their 2022 World Cup campaign in the opening game of Group F, both sides produced unimaginative attacks and defiant defences in a 0-0 draw.
The game was so uneventful just eight-minutes of added time was played in total, the lowest awarded of the tournament so far.
Croatia were runners up in their last World Cup Campaign in 2018 losing convincingly to France in the final after overcoming the likes of England, Russia and Denmark.
That year Morocco didn’t even make it out of the group stages, in fact they couldn’t even muster a win.
Just four years later however, Morocco have equalled their 2018 points tally leaving many wondering if Croatia can repeat the success of their past World Cup run.
With just four shots on target, the game was pretty scarce of any real goal scoring opportunities.
The chance of the match fell to Nikola Vlasic who tried to prod home a sweeping cross from Borna Sosa after tidy move.
LaLiga’s goalkeeper of the year 2022 Bono, made himself big however to deny the inform Torino winger at his near-post and keep the game in deadlock.
Minutes later, Nayef Aguerd’s heroic block founds its way to Luka Mordric on the outside fo the box who’s retaliating shot fired just over the bar.
Croatia’s star man, Modric, had a relatively quiet game and was unable to pull the strings as he often does for his national side.
While Croatia will be left frustrated by the result, Morocco will be taking a lot of positives as they look ahead to a tough group run.
While no clear cut chances fell the way of the Moroccans, they kept the likes of Modric, Andrej Kramaric and Ivan Perisic quiet in an organised fashion which is no easy task.
At times Morocco did craft some good opportunities however they lacked the key pass in the final third although you could argue that of both sides today.
The draw leaves both sides on one point in Group F with Belgium and Canada to play later on today.
Group F action resumes for both teams this Sunday on the 27th of November.
Croatia will hope to get back to winning ways when they take on Canada while Morocco are faced with the tough tasks of keeping another international superpower quiet as they face the tournaments dark horses, Belgium.
