John Herdsman during an inter after his side’s hard-fought 1-0 loss to Belgium said “I told them they belong here. And we’re going to go and F Croatia. That’s as simple as it gets”.

Hours after the interview, Herdman was confronted by a larger-than-usual group of Croatian media after training to explain himself.

He told the press that “I mean no disrespect to the Croatian team and Croatian people, but at the end of the day, it’s a mindset that Canada’s going to have if we’re going to have three points against one of the top teams in the world”.

Canada became the second team to get knocked out of the Qatar World Cup 2022, after its 4-1 loss against Croatia on Sunday.