Croatia fell well short of expectations as they produced an unimaginative performance in a 0-0 draw by Morocco in their World Cup Group F opener on Wednesday.
Zlatko Dalic s men – the runners-up four years ago – were strong favourites at Al Bayt Stadium but crafted few opportunities of note, the stalemate handing the early initiative to Belgium ahead of their clash with Canada.
In the stands, Croatia were so outnumbered they essentially resembled an away team, but Morocco s superior backing did not translate in to on-pitch dominance and were lucky to still be level at the break after Nikola Vlasic went close.
Dejan Lovren saw another reasonable chance go begging early in the second half, but otherwise Croatia failed to take advantage of their considerably gre…