By, Mnishi Sharma
Canada’s head coach for the Fifa World Cup, John Herdman, said, in a post-game interview , his team will beat Croatia after losing to Belgium in their first match.
“I told them they belong here and we are going to F Croatia, as simple as it gets”
Canada played its first World Cup game in 36 years and could not score a goal, despite taking 22 shots in total. Alphonso Davies had a golden opportunity to put his country on the scoreboard with a penalty in the ninth minute of the game, but was saved by Belgium’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
“For me, it was, you know, knowing that this is the biggest stage in the world. Just play my game and don’t change anything at how I play and defend and attack with the team and yeah we are a little bit disappointed but we are definitely proud of how we played today.” Said Davies about his penalty.
Canada is 41st on the FIFA rankings and played against a very strong opponent, second ranked, Belgium. Despite that Canada had 46% percent ball possession and made 429 passes with 82% passing accuracy compared to 520 passes with 83% passing accuracy of Belgium. Canada had more key passes 18-8 than the opposition led by Manchester City star Kevin De-Bruyne who won the man of the match.
“I don’t think I played a great game, I don’t know why I got the trophy. Maybe because of my name,” Davies said at a post-match news conference.
Canada has two more games left in the group stages where they can still qualify for the knockouts. They play Croatia on Sunday at 11 am and then Morroco next Thursday, at 10 am. Both the teams that Canada will face have one point on the table which gives Canada an advantage to qualify.
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