(Football news) Canada becomes the second team to have been knocked out of the 2022 World Cup after suffering a 4-1 defeat to Croatia. Alphonso Davies created history by scoring Canada\’s first goal in men\’s World Cup history as he opened the scoring with two minutes on the clock with a superb leaping header but Croatia scored two quick fire goals before half-time through strikes from Andrej Kramaric and Marko Livaja. Kramaric then rounded off an amazing performance when he added another with a well-taken strike on 70 minutes, and midfielder Lovro Majer netted Croatia\’s fourth in added time to send Canada back home.
The results meant that Canada remained without a point in Group F having lost both of their first two games and now cannot reach four points behind joint-group leaders Croatia and Morocco. Canada probably made the best start possible at the Khalifa International Stadium with the fastest goal of the tournament so far and subsequently their first in the World Cup, after not scoring in their only previous appearance in 1986. A long clearance from goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic found Tajon Buchanan, who shaped up an inch perfect cross from the right into the box where Davies arrived like an express train to rise the highest above his marker and head it down into the net.
The Canadians clearly came out all guns blazing and they were carving through the Croatia midfield as Davies\’s pace and trickery was causing nightmares for the Croatian backline. Croatia were thoroughly outplayed in the early stages but they eventually shifted into top gear. They had the ball in the net after 26 minutes through Kramaric but the linesman\’s flag cut short their celebrations as Croatia drew level in the 36th minute when Ivan Perisic who was a constant influence on the left, slid the ball through to Kramaric whose first time shot end into the far corner.
Croatia, seeing that their opposition was rattled, took the lead eight minutes later with a lovely build-up play which was eventually finished by Livaja who fired a right-footed low into the net from the edge of the box. Herdman at halftime made some changes in an effort to claw back into the game as Canada went close with Jonathan David whose shot was superbly tipped over by the Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Yet their hopes of getting back into the contest were dashed when Perisic again found Kramaric who shifted the ball on to his left foot and dispatched it low into the bottom corner in the 70th minute. Deep into stoppage time, Croatia put the icing on the cake when Mislav Orsic broke clear and squared it for Lovro Majer for an easy tap in.
\”I think there\’s a respect there for Croatia. As I keep saying, we\’re here to push as far as we can. We\’re here to change the mentality of the group. I could have been a little bit more composed coming out of that one, but that\’s my learning. I\’ll take that one on the chin. But I think we showed in those first 25 minutes that little Canada can compete with the world.\”
Canada manager John Herdman
Also read: 2022 World Cup: Germany score late equaliser to draw against Spain
