World Cup | Canada loses 4-1 to Croatia and suffers elimination

(Al Rayyan) Despite scoring their first-ever Men’s World Cup goal, scored by Alphonso Davies in the second minute of play, Canada will not enter the knockout phase of the tournament after a 4-1 loss to Croatia on Sunday.

Frustrated by Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on an early penalty in the first half of Wednesday’s game, in a 1-0 loss that already left the Canadian team in a precarious situation, Davies recovered with aplomb by lodging the ball under the left hand from goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic after just 67 seconds into the game.

Canada’s lead lasted around 30 minutes until Andrey Kramaric scored his first of two goals against Milan Borjan in the 36^e minute of play.

However, John Herdman’s men returned to the locker room with a one-goal deficit when Marko Livaja hit the target on 44^e minute.

Kramaric completed his double in the 70^e minute of play and Lovro Majer added the fourth goal for the Croatian camp during stoppage time.

Following this defeat, Canada (0-2-0) can complete the preliminary phase in Group F with a maximum of three points, in the event of a victory against Morocco next Thursday.

However, Morocco (1-0-1), which signed a surprise 2-0 victory against Belgium (1-1-0) earlier on Sunday, already has four points, one more than the Belgians.

This is also the case for Croatia (1-0-1), ranked 12^e in the world and finalist at the 2018 World Cup, in Russia, against France.

Belgium and Croatia will battle Thursday at the same time as Canada and Morocco will face off.

The countries occupying the first two places in the standings at the end of the group stage will participate in the elimination stage.

Davies’ historic goal streak began with a long punt from Borjan that was picked up by Cyle Larin in the center of the field.

Deftly, Larin controlled the ball with his foot before sending it towards Tajon Buchanan, posted on the right flank.

Buchanan moved forward, made two touches, raised his head and directed a cross that Davies, in midair, deflected with a header behind the Croatian keeper.

After Davies’ goal, which sent the nation into a frenzy, his teammates rushed towards him near one of the corners of the field.

In their first appearance in the tournament, in 1986 in Mexico, Canada had been shut out in all three of their group stage games and suffered as many defeats.