Luka Modric Celebrates 200 Caps as Croatia Defeats Panama
On a tight, nervous night in Toronto, the game kept threatening to drift into frustration and regret. Instead, it became another chapter in the story of Luka Modric’s impossible longevity.
At 40, the Croatia captain walked out for his 200th senior international appearance, stepping into a club so exclusive it barely seems real: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Bader al-Mutawa – and now Modric. The numbers alone are staggering. The way he still bends games to his will is what truly sets him apart.
His manager Zlatko Dalic did not bother to hide his admiration afterwards. Modric, he said, still “influencing matches” after two hundred caps, still the reference point for a nation. There were no wild theatrics from the man himself – there never are – but his teammates made sure the moment landed. Black T-shirts appeared after the final whistle, emblazoned with “Infinite Legacy” and the number 200. It felt less like a slogan and more like a statement of fact.
Panama’s plan, Croatia’s problem
For all the emotion around Modric, Croatia had to grind. Panama arrived with their 5-4-1 drilled and disciplined, and for 45 minutes they made it look like a cage Croatia could not pick the lock to.
The European side shuffled the ball, probing from side to side. Modric dropped deep, angled passes into the half-spaces, tried to quicken the tempo. Panama refused to bite. Lines stayed tight, distances compact, and every Croatian touch in the final third seemed to meet a red shirt and a dead end.
The best chance before the break actually fell to Thomas Christiansen’s team. Jose Luis Rodriguez rose to meet a cross and his header took a touch off Dominik Livakovic, looping onto the underside of the bar. For a heartbeat, Panama’s 2026 dream hung there with it. The ball bounced out. So did their luck.
Croatia walked off at half-time with the score level and their campaign still wobbling after the opening defeat to England. Something had to change.
Dalic rolls the dice
Dalic did not wait. Ante Budimir arrived at the interval, a clear signal of intent: more presence in the box, more menace between the posts, fewer sterile attacks in front of Panama’s back line.
The effect was immediate. Croatia’s moves suddenly had a target. Crosses had a purpose. And in the 54th minute, the pressure finally told.
Marco Pasalic, drifting cleverly in the right channel, produced a deft backheel that sliced open Panama’s shape and released Josip Stanisic on the overlap. The defender drove low across the face of goal. At the far post, Budimir – Osasuna’s all-time top scorer and a striker who lives off these moments – arrived with perfect timing and guided the ball home with calm authority.
One touch. One finish. One enormous exhale from an entire nation.
The goal detonated in the stands. Croatian supporters, who had travelled in numbers and noise, exploded into song. The tension that had gripped them all evening loosened in an instant.
Chances missed, chances denied
With Panama rocked, Croatia went hunting for the second that would have killed the contest. Pasalic should have provided it. Slipped through one-on-one, he opened his body, only to see Orlando Mosquera stand tall and block. The rebound sat up begging. Pasalic leaned back and sent it over the bar.
That miss kept the door ajar, and Panama refused to walk away. Christiansen’s players have not lacked heart at this tournament, and they poured it all into the final half-hour.
Rodriguez and his teammates chased everything. Panama racked up seven corners, slung balls into the box, and forced Livakovic into several sharp interventions as Croatia wobbled under a late aerial assault. The Canaleros kept believing, kept running, kept asking questions. What they never found was the finish that has deserted them all tournament.
Christiansen, already eliminated with zero points from two games, could still look his players in the eye. “They played with that hunger, with that dedication, with that spirit,” he said, insisting he was “super proud” of a side that, as he pointed out, conceded just two shots on target and one goal. The margins at this level are unforgiving. Panama discovered that the hard way.
Group L blows wide open
For Croatia, the win does more than honour a legend. It drags them back into a Group L fight that now looks set for a fraught final day.
England’s 0-0 stalemate with Ghana earlier had tightened everything. Those two now sit on four points apiece. Croatia lurk just behind on three. Panama, already out, can only play spoiler when they meet England.
The permutations are blunt. Beat Ghana in Philadelphia and Croatia are in the last 32. Anything less and they hand control to others. England, by contrast, need only avoid defeat against Panama to book their place.
Inside the Croatian camp, the mood has shifted. Pasalic admitted the weight they had been carrying. “We were pretty aware of our quality and the situation that we were in,” he said. “What we didn’t do in the first half, we did in the second half. We’ve been relieved of the burden and now we can move on.”
Relief, yes. But also a reminder: when the stakes rise and the margins shrink, Croatia still lean on the same figure they always have.
Two hundred caps in, Modric continues to bend time, dictate rhythm and lead a generation that refuses to fade quietly. The next test comes in Philadelphia, with everything on the line and their captain still writing his own ending.
