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… as Croatia beat Morocco in third place match

The world awaits with bated breath as winners and losers line up for today’s epic World Cup final between defending champions, France and evergreen contenders, Argentina. This comes as the appetite of football followers across the world has been whetted by the third place match was won two goals to one, by Croatia, over African heroes, Morocco, at the Khalifa International Stadium, Qatar, yesterday.

The winners and losers in today’s final will be numerous.

They will include whichever of the two finalists, France and Argentina wins the coveted trophy.

Argentina’s mercurial striker, Lionel Messi, will also come up for contention as the greatest footballer of all time if his country wins and indeed if he scores a goal or more.

Messi may then emerge over his late, great Argentine compatriot, Diego Armando Maradona and timeless  Brazilian soccer icon, Edson Arantes di Nascimento, better known as ‘Pele’, who has for six decades  been considered the greatest footballer of all time by pundits the world over.

This is considered a telling moment for Messi who is 35 years old and is likely playing in his last World Cup tournament. He will be 39 years old and considered past his prime at the next competition which comes up in 2026.

Among the winners in this year’s completion are members of the teams which made it to the latter stages and those ‘giant killers’ who upset better rated teams and received mouth-watering cash bonuses and other lavish gifts for their victories.

Notable are considered outsiders, Saudi Arabia which pulled off a surprise victory over highly rated Argentina 2-1 in the group stages following which each player in the team received a coveted Rolls-Royce car as well as cash.

Also waiting to be counted among the winners in today’s World Cup final in Qatar will be those thousands of bet stakers among the millions across the world, who will go home with pockets stashed with cash for guessing right on the various statistics of the match, including factors such as who will win, as well as number of goals that will be scored, goal difference and names of the goal scorers among others. There are also those who will lose money on the same scores.

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The betting companies also, tend to smile to the bank no matter which teams win or lose, as the statistics across the board are said to mostly stack up in their favour. Industry watchers say that the betting companies have further safety nets against losses. These include earlier accumulated gains and investments over the years, as well as insurance covers, among others.

International airlines and other hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and travel agencies operating in and to Qatar have also made a scoop of premium takings and will continue to do so in the coming days as the final batches of fans and officials return to their bases.

This year’s world Cup is considered as providing one of the first major revenue scoops for the said businesses since the two-year global COVID pandemic lockdowns which are recently lifting.

Middle-east country, Qatar, the host of the World Cup, will further enhance its brand as a tourist’s destination and reap from the positive sentiment and goodwill that football confers on partners and participants. That is if there is no serious untoward event up until the closing ceremony of the global sports fiesta today.

Croatia’s third place finish at the World Cup has a “golden layer”, said boss Zlatko Dalic after his side clinched a play-off victory over Morocco.

Zlatko Dalic’s side were runners-up to France four years ago and confirmed their status as one of the elite footballing nations with another third-place finish to go alongside that secured in their competition debut in 1998.

Dalic said: “We won the bronze medal and it has a golden layer, it is like we have won the gold medal tonight. “Fighting for the third place play-off and losing would have been a disaster. This is the end of a cycle, end of a journey. My players spared no efforts and these are what we work for.”

Josko Gvardiol put Croatia ahead with a fantastic header in the seventh minute of play but Achraf Dari equalised two minutes later before Mislav Orsic sealed the victory for Croatia late in the first half to ensure Croatia took home the bronze medal.

Morocco failed to find an equaliser in the second half as a fruitful campaign ended in back-to-back defeats.

Recall that Walid Regragui’s Moroccan team made history by becoming the first African football team to reach the semi finals, their passionate players and supporters have lit up the Qatar 2022 World Cup tournament. Despite being defeated in the last four by defending champions France and here by Croatia, they will look in retrospect on their achievements with fond memories.