Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric dedicated his Player of the Match award to Canada coach John Herdman after scoring twice to knock the Canadians out of the World Cup – saying the Englishman’s comments gave his side motivation.
Herdman said after an opening 1-0 loss to Belgium that his players were “gonna go and ‘F’ Croatia” in their next match.
But Croatia had the last laugh, recovering from conceding an early goal to earn a resounding 4-1 win that secured Canada’s World Cup elimination with a game to spare.
Kramaric scored twice and was presented with a Player of the Match award at the end of the game – and he didn’t miss the opportunity to respond to Herdman.
“I want to thank the Canada coach for the motivation,” Kramaric said.
“In the end, Croatia demonstrated who F’d whom.”
Canada’s World Cup campaign began promisingly when they put in a good performance and were unlucky to lose 1-0 to the world’s No.2 ranked side Belgium in their opening game.
After the game, Herdman said: “We’re gonna go and ‘F’ Croatia, that’s as simple as it gets. That’s our next mission now.”
However, Croatia, who drew their opener 0-0 against Morocco, showed their superiority on Sunday as Kramaric’s brace and further goals from Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer wiped out Alphonso Davies’ opening goal.
The result put Croatia top of Group E with one game to go, after Morocco stunned Belgium 2-0 in the other match.
Croatia face Belgium and Canada take on Morocco in the final fixtures next Thursday.
