The road to the World Cup Final has been set for Croatia. The Vatreni will play Belgium, Morocco, and Canada in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which kicks off on November 21st. The Final will be played December 18th.
Croatia’s first match will be played November 23rd against Morocco. They will then face Canada on November 27th before the group finale versus Belgium on December 1st.
This is a great draw for Croatia and the Vatreni should be favorites to get out of group; possibly as group winners. This was a much gentler draw than we received in 2018 when Croatia had to go through Argentina, Nigeria, and Iceland. Nigeria, in my opinion, is a far more superior team than Morocco. Belgium is aging and may have peaked fours years ago in Russia.
The caveat here: Group F will play Group E in the Round of 16, which has Spain and Germany in it. A possible rematch with Spain or Germany looms for Croatia in the knockout round if/when Modrić and his men get out of group stage.
Anyone with Croatian heritage that pulls for Canada will not be welcomed back after we trash Canada. Sramota!
I agree with you 100 percent. We should be telling Herdman to put away his England jersey first. Idemo Hrvatsha!
How are you Croatian-Canadians feeling about Canada coach John Herdman telling all Croatian-Canadians to put their Croatia jerseys in the closet?
Good draw for us. It could have been a lot worse. Also good that we play Belgium last. The match against Morocco first up will be tough and could decide our fate. We simply cannot afford to lose that match. If all players are fit and available I expect us to make it to round of 16. Spain and Germany are big guns, however these are knockout matches and anything is possible.
England had luck with the draw as did Portugal and Argentina. Group G is tough with the Swiss and Serbia fighting for the second spot.
It is a good draw, but the first rule is to not underestimate your opponents. Belgium has many great players that can cause a lot of issues, and the other teams won’t be easy. Belgium has also been first in the rankings for some time. At face value this may seem like an easy draw, but I am not sure that it is. All the teams that make it through have some quality to them or quality players. I think Croatia can make it through, if they play the right strategy. We will have to see what Dalic’s plans are for these matches. Definitely an interesting group stage.
Absolute great draw, about as good as you can get, pick up 6 points first two games heading into Belgium match. Also, games fall into Thanksgiving weekend here in states
Like this draw – other than the R16 pairing. Yesterday I did say my ideal draw would be Belgium, Morocco and Ecuador – so can’t complain, though would have liked to avoid Canada as they are a very pacy team that could give Croatia problems down the wings. Honestly, wouldn’t be surprised to see Belgium go out.
One negative of this draw – is that it looks likely we won’t see any checkers in the group stage unless Canada rock their black kit.
We’ll know when the new kits come out.
Morrocco has had full green kits in the past, and Belgium has worn completely black kits too, so if both Belgium and Canada have black kits (and Morrocco has all green), then we can wear our checkers.
I like it
I’m Canadian born and raised and Canada can be dangerous but now you are playing big boy soccer against the big boys
I’ll take it, could have been worse. But knockout stage looks dangerous.
good draw for us. right in line to be group winners. have no fear of Belgium and there are levels between us and Canada.
tough draw for the serbs. Shaqiri and Xhaka gonna drop the eagle on them again
Serbs are a Pot 3 team. Things were always going to be tougher for them.
Swiss are actually not such a bad draw for them. It could have been worse.
Basically a repeat of the 2018 group for them – just trade out Costa Rica for Cameroon.
KO’s will be very tough. If we finish top of our group, which is very realistic, we’re looking at a Spain/Germany matchup in R16 and a matchup vs. Portugal in QF.
If we finish runners up, still looking at a potential QF meeting with Brazil.
Uff
Yea, it sucks.
Morocco will be stubborn to beat…but they’ll be that way for both Croatia and Belgium.
I don’t think Canada will be too difficult to beat. Just show Modric the Sportske article where the Canadian Serb keeper talks about being from SAO Krajina lol. That will motivate Modric.
The final game against Belgium will be good. I think both teams will want to avoid Brazil in the quarters. So, the game will be a good one.
Yea, but it sucks that we cross over with the toughest group in the round of 16.
I saw Morocco play . They are no push over and they will fight . Belgium is a challenge for us. Although that generation is gone and they have some issue we should not sleep on them and we need to win the first two and not be in a position like we are always in where we need a win to advance . It must not come down to the last game . We win the first 2 its smooth sailing . We need to start off the right way like we did at Russia .
I can see Lukako burning us for two goals. Need to find a way to contain him.
Armada I agree. I look at like this . If we can take Portugal Spain or Germany down then we can win it all. I assume England France and Argentina are on the other side of the table. The question now is do we have the talent, legs and leadership to win. We should off won at Euro against Portugal but the vacuum cleaner sales men or was he the tv repair guy ruined it .the world cup in Brazil we had poor leadership that led to a failed campaign . Many times we have defeated ourselves . with the nations league coming up its a great chance for us to shore up weakness and identify our strong points. we have a lot of issues to fix before Qatar. to defeat Spain Germany or Portugal on the way to the final would be Huge boost in moral. We should not take this group likely as many groups we were matched with in the past looked easy but we failed to advance. World Cup 2006 we should off beat Japan and Australia and we were in. We should off beat Mexico . Say what you want but they fought for their dress. We need to do the same