Who won FIFA World Cup 2022 third place match? Croatia vs Morocco result, goalscorers, highlights from Qatar

Dominic Booth

Who won FIFA World Cup 2022 third place match? Croatia vs Morocco result, goalscorers, highlights from Qatar image

There is now only one match to go at the 2022 FIFA World Cup after Croatia and Morocco played out an entertaining third place match at the Khalifa International Stadium.

Both sides had lost their semifinals, to Argentina and France respectively, but had plenty to play for on Saturday.

Croatia and Morocco had been the two biggest underdog stories of the tournament, and their supporters relished one final chance to see their heroes on the biggest stage of all in Qatar. And both teams bowed out with respectable showings.

The Sporting News runs through what happened in the match here, what it means for both nations and more:

MORE: Mbappe vs Messi: The huge battle in France vs Argentina and their records

World Cup third place match final score, result

Croatia clinched the FIFA World Cup 2022 bronze medal with a 2-1 victory over Morocco at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan.

World Cup third place match goals

Although these two sides had battled to a 0-0 draw in their first meeting in Qatar, in their Group F clash, there was far more entertainment in the third-place playoff.

Josko Gvardiol opened the scoring inside 10 minutes for Croatia with a superb header, although Morocco hit back almost instantly through Achraf Dari.

It didn't take Croatia too long to restore their lead, however, with Mislav Orsic's cultured finish making it 2-1 before half-time with one of the best goals of the tournament.

The European side then held onto their marginal lead and claim their second ever World Cup third place finish.

FIFA World Cup third place match highlights

US viewers can see some of the highlights from the match here:

History of World Cup third place

There were no third place play-off matches in 1930 or 1950, but otherwise the FIFA tournament has always had the two semifinal losers play each other for the bronze medal.

Germany have the most third place finishes of any country (four if you include their 1970 finish as West Germany). Croatia finished third in 1998, while Morocco were contesting their first ever World Cup third place play-off.

World Cup year Third place team Match score Fourth place team
1934 Germany 3-2 Austria
1938 Brazil 4-2 Sweden
1954 Austria 3-1 Uruguay
1958 France 6-3 West Germany
1962 Chile 1-0 Yugoslavia
1966 Portugal 2-1 Soviet Union
1970 West Germany 1-0 Uruguay
1974 Poland 1-0 Brazil
1978 Brazil 2-1 Italy
1982 Poland 3-2 France
1986 France 4-2 Belgium
1990 Italy 2-1 England
1994 Sweden 4-0 Bulgaria
1998 Croatia 2-1 Netherlands
2002 Turkey 3-2 South Korea
2006 Germany 3-1 Portugal
2010 Germany 3-2 Uruguay
2014 Netherlands 3-0 Brazil
2018 Belgium 2-0 England
2022 Croatia 2-1 Morocco

MORE: Watch every World Cup match live with fuboTV (U.S.-only free trial)

World Cup final start time, TV channels, venue

Now attention will turn to the main event on Sunday at 6pm local time in Qatar at Lusail Iconic Stadium.

Here's how that translates to various times around the world. Here's how you can watch all the action in some of the major global territories.

  Date Time TV Channel Streaming
USA Sun, Dec. 18 10:00 ET Fox,
Telemundo, Universo
fuboTV,
Fox Sports site/app,
Telemundo Deportes site/app,
Peacock, Universo Now
Canada Sun, Dec. 18 10:00 ET TSN 1, CTV, RDS (French) TSN site/app, CTV website,
RDS app
UK Sun, Dec. 18 15:00 GMT BBC One, ITV 1, STV BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website, ITVX, STV Player
Australia Mon, Dec. 19 02:00 AEDT SBS SBS On Demand
India Sun, Dec. 18 20:30 IST Sports 18, MTV HD (Hindi) JioTV
Hong Kong Sun, Dec. 18 23:00 HKT Now TV (Ch. 616, 618), ViuTV Now TV
Malaysia Sun, Dec. 18 23:00 MYT RTM TV2, Astro FIFA World Cup 1 Astro GO, RTMKlik
Singapore Sun, Dec. 18 23:00 SGT Channel 5, StarHub TV FIFA World Cup, Singtel FIFA World Cup 141 Singtel TV GO, CAST,
StarHub TV+, MeWatch
New Zealand Mon, Dec. 19 04:00 NZDT Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports Sky Go, Sky Sport NOW

Dominic Booth

Dominic Booth Photo

Dominic joined the Sporting News in November 2022, initially working on our World Cup coverage as a freelance sub editor. He was previously a sport content editor and Man United writer at the Manchester Evening News and is a regular at both Old Traffords, football and cricket.