Hakim Ziyech and Mateo Kovacic found themselves head-to-head for a second time at the World Cup as Croatia and Morocco were left to finish off the formalities before the final on Sunday. The pair were also drawn together in the group stages with Belgium and Canada being the other two sides in Group F.
As it played out, Morocco went on an improbable but historic run to the semi-finals after qualifying from their group in second place. They went on to beat Spain and Portugal in the underdog story of the tournament before being outclassed by a clinical France team on the way to back-to-back finals.
As for Croatia, they were trying to get to consecutive final appearances themselves but couldn't bypass the brilliance of Lionel Messi in Qatar and were dumped out in the last four at the hands of Argentina. They did their own fair share of headline making though, first beating Japan on penalties before knocking out favourites Brazil on spot-kicks.
