Luka Modric Reaches 200 Caps as Croatia Defeats Panama
On a tight, nervy night in Toronto, the football kept drifting back to the same pair of boots. Forty years old, 200 caps deep, and still dictating the rhythm. Luka Modric did not score the goal that saved Croatia’s campaign, but the evening belonged to him all the same.
The captain stepped into a realm shared only with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kuwait’s Bader al-Mutawa, becoming just the fourth male player to reach 200 senior international appearances. A small number. A huge achievement.
There were no wild theatrics from him. There never are. But around him, Croatia made sure the moment did not slip by unnoticed. At full time, his teammates pulled on black T-shirts emblazoned with “Infinite Legacy” and the number 200, a simple tribute to a career that refuses to fade.
Coach Zlatko Dalic did the talking.
“He is still influencing matches and to play for your country 200 times, that is a lot. We need to be very happy to have him in the team,” Dalic said, underlining the enduring weight Modric carries in this side. “Luka is very humble and this is why he is not for major celebrations. But I am very glad we marked this today in front of our fans.”
On the pitch, though, Croatia had to fight for everything.
Panama’s wall, Croatia’s answer
Panama arrived with a plan and the discipline to execute it. Thomas Christiansen set them up in a compact 5-4-1, lines tight, distances short, and for 45 minutes Croatia’s attack kept running into a red and white brick wall.
The tempo sagged. Passes went sideways. Modric probed, switched play, tried to quicken the pulse, but Panama’s shape held. When the Central Americans did break, they carried a threat of their own. Jose Luis Rodriguez came closest, his first-half header glancing off a defender, looping over Dominik Livakovic and crashing against the underside of the bar before bouncing away. Inches from a famous lead.
Croatia, still stung by their opening-day defeat to England, trudged down the tunnel at half-time with their tournament tilting into danger.
Dalic did not wait for the game to come to him. He changed it.
Ante Budimir, the Osasuna all-time top scorer, came on at the interval to give Croatia a focal point they had been missing. A presence in the box, someone to occupy centre-backs and open spaces for the runners around him.
The effect was immediate.
Ten minutes into the second half, the pressure finally told. Marco Pasalic, sharper now between the lines, produced a clever backheel to release Josip Stanisic on the right. Stanisic drove low across the face of goal. At the far post, ghosting into space, Budimir arrived with the composure Dalic had demanded. One touch, guided firmly into the corner. 1-0, and a roar from the Croatian end that shook the stadium awake.
The goal changed everything.
The travelling support, quiet and anxious before the break, turned the stands into a pocket of Zagreb. Flags, flares, and a relentless chorus that seemed to push Croatia 10 yards higher up the pitch.
Pasalic should have settled it soon after. Slipped through one-on-one, he had the chance to kill the contest but saw his effort smothered by Orlando Mosquera. The rebound sat up kindly, only for him to lash it over the bar. A let-off for Panama, and a reminder that Croatia’s margin for error in this group is wafer-thin.
Still, the tactical switch stood as the night’s turning point. Dalic’s decision at the interval dragged his side back into this tournament.
Panama fall, but not quietly
For Panama, the defeat sealed their exit from the 2026 World Cup, but it did not come with a collapse in spirit.
Christiansen’s players chased, pressed, and chased again. They finished with seven corners, sent a flurry of balls into the Croatian box and forced Livakovic into several sharp stops during a frantic spell late on. The Canaleros pushed until the final whistle, but the same problem that has haunted them all tournament returned: they could not score.
“They played with that hunger, with that dedication, with that spirit. That’s what we wanted of the team. I’m super proud of them,” Christiansen said. “They [Croatia] put two shots on goal and scored one.”
It was a fair summary. Panama had moments, but Croatia had the edge where it mattered.
Their final group game, against England, now comes with no stakes in the standings, only pride. Two games, zero points, and a lingering sense of what might have been if Rodriguez’s header had dipped an inch lower.
Group L blown wide open
Earlier in the day, England and Ghana had played out a 0-0 draw, a result that left the door ajar for Croatia. Dalic’s men walked through it.
Group L now stands on a knife-edge: England on four points, Ghana on four, Croatia just behind on three. Panama are out, but still capable of complicating England’s path if complacency creeps in.
For Croatia, the equation is brutally clear. Beat Ghana in Philadelphia and they are in the last 32. Anything less, and they are at the mercy of others.
Inside the camp, the mood has shifted. The tension of the first half in Toronto gave way to something lighter after Budimir’s winner. Pasalic captured that release.
“We were pretty aware of our quality and the situation that we were in. What we didn’t do in the first half, we did in the second half,” he said. “We’ve been relieved of the burden and now we can move on.”
Move on, but not forget.
Because this night was not just about survival in Group L. It was about a midfielder who has carried a nation for more than a decade, walking out for the 200th time and still shaping games at the highest level.
Modric will not play forever. Croatia know that. Maybe that is why every touch in Toronto felt a little more significant, every glance upfield a reminder that their time with him is running out.
One more group game. One more test of nerve. And with their “Infinite Legacy” captain still bending matches to his will, who dares bet against Croatia forcing their way into the knockout rounds yet again?
