Croatia Hammer Canada To Claim First Win Of The World Cup

An Andrej Kramaric brace helps Croatia to 4-1 win over Canada, who can no longer make it out of Group F.

Croatia made only one change from the side who played out a 0-0 draw with Morocco on Wednesday, as Torino’s Nikola Vlasic dropped out of the starting eleven, with Hajduk Split’s Marko Livaja replacing him.

Canada also only made the one switch in their starting eleven after a narrow defeat to Belgium on Wednesday, with Reading’s Junior Hoilett making way for Club Brugge forward Cyle Larin.

It was Canada who had the perfect start to the game, as only a minute into the game, Alphonso Davies headed Tajon Buchanan’s cross past Livakovic to give them the lead and their first ever goal at a World Cup.

Croatia thought they were level after 26 minutes, but Andrej Kramaric’s effort was ruled out due to an offside in the buildup to the goal.

10 minutes later, Kramaric finally had the equaliser. Ivan Perisic slid him through on goal, and he fired low into the bottom right corner to bring Croatia back on level terms.

It wasn’t long before Croatia were in front. Juranovic poked the ball through the Canadian defenders legs, landing at Livaja’s feet who turned and drilled a shot low into the bottom corner to give his country the lead.

Croatia came close to doubling their lead 10 minutes after half time as Modric’s cut back found Kramaric, who’s effort was saved well by Borjan.

With 20 minutes left to play, Croatia made it 3-1. Perisic floated a cross to the back post which was brought down by Kramaric and placed into the bottom left corner for his brace.

Croatia rounded off a fine performance in stoppage time, as they hit Canada on the counter attack with Orsic being unselfish and sliding in Majer who made it 4-1.

That result means that Croatia move to the top of Group F, and Canada can no longer reach the knockout stages of the tournament.

Next up for Croatia is a heavyweight clash against Belgium in a game with qualification on the line for both sides. They face off on Thursday at 3pm GMT, with Canada facing Morocco at the same time.