The first draw in the tournament was recorded.
After Mexico, another host of the World Cup played its first match in the tournament. But Canada’s game was not so successful – the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto ended in a draw. The hosts managed to avoid defeat in the second half.
Canada – Bosnia and Herzegovina 1:1
Goals: Lukich, 21 (0:1). Larin, 78 (1:1)
Canada: Crepeau, De Fougierol, Cornelius, Lareya, Johnston, Eustachio (Osorio, 90+1), Kone, Millar (Ahmad, 61), Buchanan (Schaffelberg, 61), J. David (P. David, 61), Oluwaseyi (Larin, 76)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Vasil, Muharemovic, Katic, Kolasinac (Burnic, 83), Dedic, Tahirovic, Bashic (Gigovic, 61), Memic (Shunic, 74), Bayraktarjevic (Alaybegovic, 74), Demirovic, Lukic (Bajdar, 61)
Warnings: Johnston, 12. De Fougierol, 53 – Demirovic, 44. Lukic, 45. Katic, 90
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 40-year-old Dzeko, the leader and symbol of the team, was unexpectedly left on the bench. Thus, both teams will play without their main stars. The Canadians did not have Davis, the defender of “Bavaria”, who has not yet fully recovered from his injury.
When the whistle blew, Canada took the lead, but it was Bosnia and Herzegovina who had the first scoring chance. Sergei Barbarez’s team could convert their first shot through a standard situation into a goal. In front of the goal guarded by Crepo, Memic got to the ball before everyone else, but his shot went over the crossbar. In general, the first part of the game was dominated by Bosnians. Although the team moved in a 4-4-2 formation, it quickly delivered the ball to the front line and the Europeans also moved better in one-on-ones. The Canadians made their first shot in the game only in the 17th minute, but David kicked the ball from 12 meters away and it fell into the hands of the goalkeeper Vasil.
The Bosnians continued to pose a threat from set pieces and another corner kick led to the opener midway through the first half. The ball was first delivered to the near post, Kolasinac, who was standing there, passed the ball to the center, and Lukic moved faster than the defender in the fight for the ball and celebrated his first goal for the national team.
After taking the lead, the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina went into deep defense. Canada struggled to break through that wall. The hosts had just one shot on target during the first half, with an xG rating of 0.64. The team won ten corner kicks, but the Bosnians won all the balls in the second floor.
Marsh’s students returned from the break completely different. The team’s combinations were finally starting to look similar and it was only a matter of time before the score was equalised. The Canadians entered the opponent’s penalty area in large numbers, and Larya shot at the goalkeeper without any chance, but Kolasinats made the best save of the World Cup, keeping the ball back into the net.
In response to this, Demirović went into a one-on-one situation on the counter attack, but blew the situation away. The forward threw the ball away from him and Crepo, who came forward, managed to clear the danger.
With an hour left in the game, Marsh completely changed the attacking line, replacing Juventus striker David, Villarreal winger Buchanan and Hull City winger Miller. A little later, he replaced another forward of the team, Villarreal striker Oluwasei.
Marsh replaced him with his experienced striker Larin – the member of “Southampton” immediately scored a goal. This attack was initiated by Kone, who moved from the wing to the center, and the fine pass of Promise became the decoration of this attack. Larin left the experienced Bosnian defender Muharemovic in the spot, and he was also helped by a ricochet.
At the end of the game, the Canadians tried to hang the victory in front of their fans, but the Bosnians repelled all attacks and saved a strategic draw. The final statistics of the game showed a slight advantage of Canada: shots – 13:8 (shots on goal area – 4:3), xG – 1.24 against 0.94.
It was the first point that the Canadians won in the World Cup. Canada previously participated in the 1986 and 2022 World Cups, but lost all 6 of their group stage matches.
Now, in the 2nd round, Bosnia and Herzegovina will play against Switzerland (June 18), and Canada will play against Qatar (on the night of June 19).
