Croatia downs Morocco in FIFA Men’s World Cup to capture third place

The FIFA 2022 Men’s World Cup is wrapping up. Today we’ve got Croatia taking on Morocco in a battle for third place.

This might be a chance to see Bayern Munich defender Josip Stanišić in action, with starting right-back Josip Juranović of Celtic ailing. For Morocco, the starters who have logged a lot of minutes might now all be at the end of the line. If Noussair Mazraoui plays, here’s hoping he doesn’t get hurt.

And of course, there’s some transfer intrigue as well — both keepers, Dominik Livaković of Croatia and Morocco’s Yassine “Bono” Bounou — have been at one point tipped to replace Bayern’s injured Manuel Neuer, though the rumor mill is churning fast at this point.

Dec 17: Third place play-off

• Croatia vs Morocco | 10AM EST

TV/Streaming: Peacock Premium (USA, en español); BBC/ITV (UK); Find Your Country

If you’d like to check back on our pre-tournament predictions and have a laugh about how badly we got it wrong, we’ve got you covered:

Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Groups G & H

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Interested in more World Cup talk? Hop over to our weekend warm-up podcast! This week we ponder Bayern prospect Paul Wanner’s Austria courtship, next steps for Benji Pavard, and what to expect from Germany at the tournament.

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