MAGIC MODRIC CAN’T CONJURE HIS OLD TRICKS
CROATIA’S midfield prowess may still give Gareth Southgate nightmares after Luka Modric’s passing carousel bypassed his England team to end their World Cup dreams in 2018.
Yet there appears to be a spanner in the works of the usually smooth-operating Croatian roundabout of possession dominance. After a disappointing Euro 2020, Croatia found themselves held by a spirited Morocco side here, strengthened by the return of Hakim Ziyech after his bitter fall-out with the former coach. In the middle of the desert at the Al-Bayt Stadium, caution appeared the order of the day. The maxim not to lose your opening game had been absorbed by both, who seemed to accept a draw was the ideal low-risk start.
‘We haven’t come here just to get through the group stages,’ insisted man-of-the-mediocrematch Modric. ‘Our ambitions are greater on the basis of our experience in Russia.’
But his coach Zlatko Dalic was a little more brutal in his analysis. ‘We were very cautious and indecisive. Maybe we lacked a bit of courage.’
And he baulked at the comparison to the heroes of 2018. ‘That was another team, a different generation of players.’ If Croatia came into the game with midfield supremacy on their mind, with Modric supported by Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic, it was Morocco who made the early running. Indeed, Kovacic was hooked because Dalic wanted a more direct approach.
For Morocco, Sofyan Amrabat was physically imposing in his holding midfield role and Selim Amallah and Azzedine Ounahi prevented Croatia from playing in quite the way we’re used to. Ziyech was more influential in the first half than Modric, his cross from the right just missing the head of Youssef En-Nesyri. But Croatia came to life in the final minutes before the interval, with Nikola Vlasic denied by a good Bono save and Modric clearing the crossbar with a shot from 20 yards out. Croatia stepped up and Morocco stepped back after half-time — but still the Croatians struggled to create clear-cut chances. The maximum excitement came on 51 minutes when Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal appealed for a penalty after his shot struck Dejan Lovren. Referee Fernando Rapallini was uninterested. Modric did prise an opening soon afterwards with a delightful cross-field pass for Josip Juranovic, whose cross looked ready to be headed home until Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi intervened. Bayern Munich, having lost Lucas Hernandez to a cruciate knee ligament injury yesterday, would have been alarmed to see full back Noussair Mazraoui carried off, shortly after his header was saved by Dominik Livakovic. Ziyech continued to shine down the right but Croatia managed to clear his dangerous cross on 63 minutes. And the best chance of the half came two minutes later as Hakimi hit a dipping shot which swerved in the air and forced goalkeeper Livakovic to punch away. Ultimately, it felt as though both teams were content with their draw — there were no desperate stoppage-time scrambles to break the deadlock before embraces all round at the end.