After a stuttering first half and a hard-fought second, Croatia came out victorious with a 1-0 win against Panam\u00e1 in Toronto, giving the team three valuable points at the World Cup \u2013 one behind Group L leaders England and second-placed Ghana, who drew 0-0 earlier today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This now means that there is everything to play for on the final match day for Croatia, England, and Ghana as a victory could grant any of them top of the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for Panam\u00e1, it\u2019s sadly the end of the road for the CONCACAF side and, despite a valiant effort, it definitely caused many headaches against Croatia. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n
When Croatia wakes up, it can be very dangerous. The game’s only goal proved that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The beginning of the match was impressive for Panam\u00e1, looking more composed and creative towards Croatia when heading forward on the counter. Canaleros coach Thomas Christiansen had them organized against the UEFA side and even offered a threat going forward from the wings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the game evolved, Croatia \u2014 finalists in 2018 and third-placed finishers in 2022 \u2014 held more possession, but it was <\/i>still Panam\u00e1\u00a0<\/i>with the best opportunities to score. In the end, the first half ended scoreless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zlatko Dali\u0107 knew that his Croatian side had to turn up the intensity, so his players obliged. Thanks to the substitute Ante Budimir, who scored his first goal for the national team after a year, Croatia took the lead.<\/p>\n
The only goal of the evening was a thing of beauty. Marco Pasalic wonderfully flicked the ball for his left back Josip Stanisic, who overtook him on the right wing and delivered one of the best crosses of the tournament so far. The ball was so good that all Budimir had to do was tap it in. There was a fight from Panam\u00e1 and a lot of heart, but in the end, it wasn\u2019t enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for Croatia, this was a solid win. But Dali\u010b knows more will be needed against Ghana, which will be an absolute test in Philadelphia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Photo by Ezra Shaw – FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n In a tournament filled with veteran players showing they can still make magic, let’s give some spotlight to Croatia’s Luka Modri\u0107.<\/p>\n The 40-year-old midfielder joined Cristiano Ronaldo, Bader Al-Mutawa and Lionel Messi to play his 200th match with his national team. A magnificent achievement from one of the best players of his position in the history of the modern game.\u00a0<\/p>\n When you watch Croatia, it is so evident that Modri\u0107 continues to pull all the strings. Who knows what will happen to this team when he retires? Perhaps Martin Baturina will become the next talisman for this team, as\u00a0the\u00a0<\/strong>23-year-old attacking midfielder was very good. But for now, Modri\u0107 remains king. For 80 minutes, he was excellent once again.<\/p>\n (Photo by Cole Burston \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY After a stuttering first half and a hard-fought second, Croatia came out victorious with a 1-0 win against Panam\u00e1 in Toronto, giving the team three valuable points at the World Cup \u2013 one behind Group L leaders England and second-placed Ghana, who drew 0-0 earlier today.\u00a0 This now means that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}