At a more appropriate time for…tea than regular beer and pizza, there will be today (17.00) Small World Cup Final Qatar! The choice of this specific (and inconvenient for Europe) timing was made from the outset with the aim of striking a relative balance with other parts of the world waiting, albeit not particularly impatiently, to see which team finishes 3rd in the world’s most popular football competition. In relation to the magic of the grand final, this goal does not look as bright as two gladiators from the highest shelves in world football. It’s pretty amazing that Croatian as well as Morocco they’ve come this far (they’ve been in the same group, drawn 0-0 and finished 2nd and 1st respectively), but despite the fact that they’ve both won a lot of fans for their titanic efforts against a much stronger opponent , they are still far from getting a share of, for example, Brazil, England or Portugal.

For Croatia, finishing in the top four at the World Cup is not unheard of, as is the case with Morocco. Children of the “big school swim”, the Croats reached the same place in 1998 when they finished 3rd, beating the Netherlands 2:1, and up a notch in the last competition, in Russia 2018, when they lost 4:2 France in the grand final in Moscow and took 2nd place. And in itself, the participation of a small country with a population of only 4 million people in the semi-finals of the World Cup for the third time in the last 7 events is a huge success, especially now that it is going on for the second time. in a row. On the contrary, never before has an African representative reached such a high level until the semi-finals of the World Cup. Morocco have made a huge breakthrough and it is precisely because they remain “thirsty” that they seem to be more motivated than the Croats to 3rd place.

For the third time in four World Cups, the Croats – The biggest difference for Morocco and Africa.

To the credit of the organizers, the inexperienced Abdulrahman al-Jassim from Qatar was appointed as the short final judge. In the grand final there was also a surprise with the nomination of our friend Simon Marchiniak. The Polish referee has previously been called up for a Superleague 1 match, and in the past he officiated several games of our national team, as well as other Greek teams in European competition.

The grand final will take place tomorrow at the same…unlucky time (5pm), with rivals France and Argentina, the two most heavyweights in world football with two trophies to their credit. However, the “tricolors” faced the spread of the virus in their ranks. After Rabiot, Upamecano, Coman, Varane and Konate also showed symptoms. More than 50,000 Argentine fans are expected to gather in the stands at Lusail Stadium.