Croatia goalscorer Andrej Kramaric had some strong words for Canada boss John Herdman after the teams’ World Cup clash.

Herdman vowed to ‘F Croatia’Kramaric scores twice in 4-1 winThanks Canada boss for motivation

WHAT HAPPENED? Herdman raised eyebrows at the World Cup by saying his team were “gonna go and F’ Croatia” after opening their campaign with a narrow defeat to Belgium. Canada took the lead in the match against Croatia, with Alphonso Davies scoring their first-ever World Cup goal, but the 2018 finalists hit back to win 4-1 and knock Herdman’s side out of the tournament.

WHAT THEY SAID: “These are words that have motivated the whole of Croatia. I want to thank the coach of Canada for the motivation,” Kramaric said after the final whistle. “He could have chosen better words. He could have formulated it a bit differently. In the end Croatia demonstrated who f*cked whom.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Herdman’s side looked set to pull off a shock when they scored after just 67 seconds against Croatia. However, Zlatko Dalic’s side responded well with Kramaric netting two goals and Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer also scoring to seal a comfortable victory that sends Croatia top of Group F ahead of the final round of group fixtures.

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DID YOU KNOW? Canada have lost all five of their World Cup matches to date – only El Salvador (6) have played more games in the competition while losing on each occasion.

WHAT NEXT FOR CROATIA? Dalic’s side play their final group match against Belgium on Thursday.