FIFA World Cup 2022: How Morocco also almost defeated Croatia with their strong defensive system – tactical analysis

On the penultimate day of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Croatia and Morocco met in the match for third place at the Khalifa International Stadium. Both teams were defeated in the semi-finals and thus missed out on the grand final.

The Croatians were already convincing at the World Cup four years ago and were only stopped by France in the final. This year, too, the team around midfield strategist Modric had a run that only the Argentines, around Messi, managed to stop in the semi-final.

Morocco had already made history before todays match by becoming the first team ever to reach a World Cup semi-final. The Lions of the Atlas eliminated numerous favoured teams on their way to the Top 4, only ending their run against France. In the end, they lost 0:2 against the Equipe Tricolore.

The two teams already met in the preliminary round. However, a possible outcome for todays match cannot be deduced from this  the game ended 0:0. Thus, at the end of the small final, Croatia was able to celebrate third place with a 2-1 victory after 90 minutes.

In this tactical analysis article we will focus on the opportunities Croatia had in the build-up to the game against the defensive tactics of the Moroccans. We will also take a closer look at Croatias behaviour after losing the ball in the game. But first, we will start the analysis by introducing the two lineups.

Lineups

Zlatko Dalic set up his team in a 4-2-3-1 system, which became a 4-4-2 system in defence. Dominik Livakovic played in goal and Ivan Perisic, Josko Gvardiol, Josip Sutalo and Josip Stanisic from FC Bayern München formed the back four in front of him. Mateo Kovacic and captain Luka Modric were the two defensive midfielders and at the same time the control centre of Croatia. In front of them, Andrej Kramaric acted as a hanging point and Mislav Orsic and Lovro Majer started on the flanks. The only nominal striker was Marko Livaja.

Walid Regragui set up his team in a 4-3-3 system, which repeatedly became the now typical 4-1-4-1/ 4-5-1 in defence. Sevilla FCs Bono played in goal and the back four in front of him was made up of Achraf Hakimi, Jawad El Yamiq, Achraf Dari and Yahia Attiyat Allah. Sofyan Amrabat, Bilal El Khannous and Abdelhamid Sabiri formed the three midfielders and Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal started on the flanks. The only nominal striker was again Youssef En-Nesyri.

Croatias options with the ball

From the Moroccans recent games, Croatia could anticipate that they will often run against a well-organised defence. We will look at this defensive compactness in more detail in the next section. Now the focus will be on the options Croatia found against this defence.

Croatia had various options to get the game into the opponents third. The focus was mainly on overplaying the Moroccans compact midfield. In the following, we will now show three different ways Croatia tried to build up the game from the back.