FIFA World Cup 2022 Day 26 Live Updates: Croatia face Morocco in the third place play off

Before big final, Morocco vs Croatia in ‘cruelest match’, the third-place playoff
Croatia and Morocco players will have to gather themselves up following the semifinal defeats to Argentina and France respectively for a 3rd place play off. (AP)
BEFORE THE World Cup heads for the Lusail Iconic Stadium, a shimmering bowl amidst gleaming sky-risers on the outskirts of Doha, it stops at the Khalifa Stadium, the oldest stadium in the country refurbished with a dramatically swooping upper rim, nestled in the heart of the ambitious city. The world waits breathlessly for Sunday’s final between Argentina and France at the Lusail; the third-place playoff between Morocco and Croatia remains largely an afterthought, but not without stakes, context, or thrill.
its sheer design, it’s a strange contest. Two teams with their title ambitions quashed, the semi-finals defeat still haunting and tormenting, the ifs and buts swirling in their mind, their dreams shattered, their tired bodies, still recovering, have to bury all those, the drain of both mind and body, to fight for a bronze medal, which could barely be a consolation when weighed with the immediacy of the semi-finals heartbreak. [Read more]