Not Wanting To Disrupt Sadness, Croatian Coach Asks His Team To Focus On Third Champions' Rebution Of Morocco's Opponents

JAKARTA - The failure to advance to the 2022 World Cup final leaves sadness for the Croatian national team. Croatian Asa won after being defeated by Argentina with a score of 0-3 in the semifinals Wednesday, December 14 in the early hours of Indonesian Western Time (WIB).

But the coach, Zlatko Dalic, did not want the sadness to last too long. He asked his team to refocus on fighting for the third place.

Dalic hopes his squad can avenge the failure to the final in the race for the third place. Vatreni will face Morocco on Saturday 17 December evening WIB.

"The players are sad in the dressing room but I told them to remain upright and proud of us," Dalic said, quoted from L'Equipe on Thursday, December 15.

"We have to be ready to fight for third place against Morocco. It would be great to get another medal for this generation," he said.

In 1998, Croatia had experienced the same situation. They returned home with the status of third place in the World Cup after beating the Netherlands 2-1.