Canada boss John Herdman told his players they are going to ‘F’ Croatia after they lost their opening World Cup game 1-0 to Belgium on Wednesday.

Canada unlucky to lose 1-0 to BelgiumHerdman proud of his team’s displaySaid his side will beat Croatia

WHAT HAPPENED? A first-half goal from Michy Batshuayi was enough to win the game for the Red Devils, but the Canadians will feel hard done by as they missed one penalty and felt they should have had another in a tight clash in Qatar. Herdman saw enough to believe his team have what it takes to go through and backed them to upset Croatia in their next match.

WHAT THEY SAID: Herdman was spotted giving his side a passionate teamtalk on the pitch after the game, seemingly suggesting they showed balls in the clash with Belgium. He explained: “I just told them they belong here and we’re going to go and ‘F’ Croatia next. It’s as simple as that!

“We had an opportunity tonight to be top of the group, that was the mission, but we missed it,” he said after the match. “But I’m proud of the performance, these lads put a shift in, they showed that they can live on this stage. I think they made the fans proud and made them feel like they belong here, and that was important for us.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Canada still have a good chance of going through despite sitting bottom of Group F after the first game as Croatia and Morocco sit just a point ahead of them after playing out a goalless draw.

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WHAT NEXT FOR CANADA? The North American nation will get their chance to ‘F’ Croatia on Sunday. They will then take on Morocco in their last group stage game on December 1.