Defier of odds, Croatia and Morocco hope to end on high

Following morale-shattering defeats in their semifinals of the World Cup, Croatia and Morocco have the unenviable job of picking themselves up and getting prepared for the third-place decider on Saturday.

Both teams had exceeded expectations in their run to the last four -- Croatia, who not many had expected to go that far with an aging side despite being the runners-up from last edition, and Morocco, the rank outsiders no-one had thought would progress past the group stage.

But here they are, a step away from winning the bronze medal in the World Cup. No matter how insignificant that prize seems to be in the bigger context, both teams would want to leave Qatar on a high.

Walid Regragui, the Morocco coach who was appointed just months before the showpiece event and guided his team to the brink of a maiden World Cup final to everyone's surprise, did not hide his frustration at not being able to play the decisive last match.

"I understand it's important to finish third rather than fourth, but my takeaway is we didn't reach the final... We wanted to play the final on Sunday, not play tomorrow," Regragui said at a press conference on Friday.

Emerging top from a group which also featured Belgium, Croatia and Canada, Morocco became the first Arab and African team to reach the last four of the showpiece event. The 47-year-old coach felt that what they achieved was of enormous importance to his country.

"But I told my players this is our seventh World Cup game. If you told any Morocco fan we would be playing our seventh game on Dec. 17, they would be proud.

"Morocco played six World Cup games in 20-odd years and now we've played six games in a month -- this is priceless. It's as if we played two World Cups or even more, that's beautiful from an experience point of view," Regragui added.

Morocco and Croatia complete a full circle as these two teams kicked off their group with a goalless draw. As they meet each other again, the coach feels both teams will certainly want to end the campaign on a high.

"There was a lot of hesitation for the first game... Both teams will want to win it (on Saturday) and it will be a great game," Regragui said.

Croatia, meanwhile, will be a little more disappointed for failing to match their achievement from four years ago when they eventually settled for a runners-up finish.

For them it represents an opportunity missed to crown their golden generation of players, with coach Zlatko Dalic confirming most of them will not play in the next World Cup.

Perhaps that is the reason Croatia are a bit more desperate to end in third position, a feat they had achieved back in 1998 in their debut appearance.

"I told the players they need to keep their heads up, be proud of giving their maximum and be ready, we must prepare to fight for third place," Dalic told reporters on Thursday.

Forward Andrej Kramaric dismissed the idea that the third-place playoff is an empty contest, suggesting the winner will become immortal.

"Eight of us from [the tournament in] Russia understand that feeling of winning a medal at the World Cup.

"We have a lot of players who haven't experienced that and would love to do that because it's something that will stay with you for the rest of their life," Kramaric said.

If Croatia win, it will be a third tournament medal in their short World Cup history of 24 years while Morocco, regardless of the result, will go down as the greatest World Cup side in African and Arab world's history.