Soporific start – Newspaper Kommersant No. 218 (7419) dated 11/24/2022

The tournament in Group F of the Qatari World Cup opened with a boring match in which the silver medalists of the previous championship, the Croatians, drew – 0: 0 – with the Moroccans, and in which neither of them had anything against such an outcome.

The Croatian national team before this World Cup did not seem capable of repeating the exploits of four years ago, but those who remembered and warmed their souls about her breakthrough to the silver of the Russian championship in 2018, in the match with the Moroccans, tensed up, could find signs reminiscent of him. The game exudes solidity, solidity, prudence. No pointless passes, no pointless moves. Everything is good.

Of course, it would be nice to add a little tempo and passion to solidity, but even without these ingredients, the ball is held up exclusively by the Croats. Moroccans own it episodes.

You can again admire Luka Modric – the conciseness and accuracy of his movements and feints, the amazing correctness in choosing the part of the field where you should be. But the veteran suddenly explodes and, having shaken Sofyan Amrabat, softly hangs in the center of the penalty area. In 2018, Mario Mandzukic would have rushed there with his phenomenal flair and scored an easy goal. But Mandzhukic is no longer in this Croatian squad, and Andrei Kramaric is at the forefront of the attack. And it is more difficult for him to feel and read the Modric maneuver.

You can admire other Croatian masters. For example, Marcelo Brozovic, who in the support zone feels as at ease as a shark in a pool with aquarium fish: God forbid anyone finds himself next to him. Or Ivan Perisic. Once, as if hypnotizing the Moroccan, he makes him make a terrible cut, after which, noticing that the goalkeeper Yassin Bunu has moved out of the gate, he immediately hits them from four dozen meters. Fly the ball half a meter lower, it would be a great goal.

But still, without a pinch of anguish, the Croats did not really succeed in crushing the Moroccans.

And for the first time they created an indisputable moment only at the end of the first half, when Nikola Vlašić jumped out from behind the backs of Borna Sosa. The former leader of CSKA tried to pierce Buna from the goalkeeper’s line, but the goalkeeper resisted. And for the second half, it seems, the injured Vlašić did not come out.

The Moroccans, bright by name, who promised the quality of their application a good football team, things, however, are even worse. Hakim Ziyech waited in vain for the ball: they looked after him carefully. Ashraf Hakimi on his right flank turned on very rarely, but strained the Croatian defense when he decided to leave him and suddenly move to the center, finding a foul from Modric and earning a dangerous standard. Ziyech, however, confirming that he was not in the best shape, ruined it.

The break seemed to have gone to this generally boring game in favor. For about five minutes, the teams showed their readiness to finally open up a little. Both of them bit. The Moroccans demanded that the referee Fernando Rapalini see the ball hit the Croatian hand. The Croats were annoyed at the unluckiness of Dejan Lovren. The defender, as usual, visited someone else’s penalty area when Modric gave a corner and almost sent the ball into the net: Amrabat secured Buna.

But then everything calmed down again, returned to its former soporific regime. The Moroccans were not inspired by their own micro-successes, which proved that the multi-layered Croatian defense can sometimes fail. The Croatians weren’t inspired by leaving the field with what appeared to be a serious injury to Nouser Mazraoui, although he was actually an important figure in the rear of the Moroccan national team. It is even strange that the Al Bayt stadium stands were still seething. Their mood contrasted too sharply with the mood that prevailed on the field. Both teams, in fact, made no secret of the fact that two zeroes denoting the score look from their point of view not such bad numbers for the opening game of the tournament.

The second match in this group, in which the national teams of Belgium and Canada met, ended late in the evening Moscow time.

Alexey Dospekhov