This is the first encounter between Morocco and Croatia at the Fifa World Cup. Their only previous meeting was in the Hassan II Trophy in December 1996, played in Casablanca. The game ended 2-2, producing three red cards. Croatia won 7-6 on penalties.
Croatia have won their two Fifa World Cup games against African opposition by an aggregate of 6-0 (4-0 v Cameroon in 2014, 2-0 v Nigeria in 2018).
This will be Morocco's sixth appearance at the Fifa World Cup, but they have not progressed past the group stage since 1986, when they were eventually eliminated by Germany in the round of 16 (0-1).
Morocco have won only one of their last 10 Fifa World Cup games (D2 L7), 3-0 against Scotland in 1998 in the group stages.
13 of Morocco’s 14 goals at the Fifa World Cup have been scored from open play. The only exception was Youssef En-Nesyri’s goal against Spain in 2018, which came from a corner.
This is Croatia’s sixth Fifa World Cup appearance. In the previous five, they have either been eliminated in the group stages (3 times) or at least reached the semifinals (twice, including the final in 2018).
Croatia have lost their opening game in three of their five World Cup appearances, with the exceptions being 1998 (reached the semifinal) and 2018 (reached the final).
Youssef En-Nesyri could become the first ever Moroccan player to score a goal in two different editions of the Fifa World Cup. He netted against Spain in 2018.
Luka Modric has made more appearances at major international tournaments than any other Croatian player (25). Coming into this tournament, no player has ever played in both the Fifa World Cup and European Championship in three different decades, something that Modric could achieve in Qatar.
Ivan Perišic has been directly involved in more goals than any other player for Croatia in major tournament history (9 goals + 5 assists in World Cup + Euro). In fact, he’s one of only two European players to have scored and/or assisted a goal in each of the last five major international tournaments; the other is Cristiano Ronaldo.