The first match of Group F takes place on Wednesday 23rd November at the Al Bayt Stadium and will be between Morocco and Croatia.

This will be Morocco’s sixth appearance in the World Cup finals and the North African nation qualified by beating D.R. Congo 4-1 on aggregate in the third-stage playoffs. Prior to that, they finished top of their qualification group, winning all six games but scoring 20 goals and conceding just one. Those stats may be flattering somewhat given the standard of opponents that they faced on their journey but nevertheless they qualified and will look to make it out of what is a relatively tough group.

Along with Croatia, Morocco will face both Canada and Belgium on route to the knockout stages which will be a tough journey for them if they make it.

Morocco do have some players of note and the team is ranked 24th in the World by FIFA – just eight places below their first opponents Croatia.

Achraf Hakimi is perhaps their most valuable player with the right-back having spells at top clubs such as Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan and since the July 2021, Paris Saint-Germain. Hakimi has scored three goals and made six assists in 28 league appearances this season for PSG which are respectable numbers for a right-back.

Along with Hakimi, Morroco’s squad includes Sevilla goalkeeper Bono and centre-forward Youuef En-Haddadi along with Wolves duo Imran Louza and Adam Masina.

In their five World Cup appearances to date, Morocco have won just two games, managing just one draw at Russia 2018 which surprisingly was against Spain.

Croatia are regulars at the World Cup and made it through to the final in 2018 after knocking out England in extra time of the semi-finals. They were outclassed by France in the final stage, being beaten 4-2 in Moscow.

Behind Belgium, Croatia are the favourites to qualify from Group F but it won’t be a walk in the park for them. They have some great players in their squad such as Luka Modrić but both Morocco and Canada, who have been transformed under English manager John Herdman in recent years, will certainly put up a fight.

Croatia finished top of their qualifying group to reach the finals, finishing above the likes of Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia. They’re priced at Evens to beat Morroco which I think is a fair price and I’d be willing to back them at those odds.

These two teams will likely battle it out for second place in the group and so neither side will want to lose this crucial match. I can envision a slightly nervy affair with Croatia ultimately coming away with the three points. Therefore, I think backing Draw/Croatia in the HT/FT market may be worth considering which is priced at 4/1 with both Bet365 and Unibet.

Morocco vs Croatia team news and line ups will be published here once full World Cup squads have been announced.