Luka Modric Celebrates 200 Caps as Croatia Defeats Panama
In a match thick with nerves and narrow margins, the story kept circling back to the same figure in the middle of the pitch. Luka Modric, 40 years old, still dictating, still demanding, still there when it matters most.
On this night he stepped into football’s rarest company. Two hundred senior caps for Croatia, a number reached by only three men before him in the men’s game: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kuwait’s Bader al-Mutawa. An exclusive roll call, now with a Croatian accent.
An infinite legacy in real time
There were no wild personal celebrations from Modric. That has never been his way. The tributes came from those around him instead.
Zlatko Dalic, who has built an era around his captain, did not hide his admiration afterwards. “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. 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.”
The players made sure it was marked. At full time they pulled on black T-shirts, the words “Infinite Legacy” and the number 200 emblazoned across the front, a simple statement for a career that has been anything but.
Yet for all the emotion around Modric, Croatia did not have the luxury of a testimonial mood. They came into Toronto wounded, beaten by England on the opening day, and staring at a group that could turn hostile very quickly.
Panama’s plan, Croatia’s problem
Panama saw that vulnerability and went for it. Thomas Christiansen set his side up in a disciplined 5-4-1, lines tight, distances short, space at a premium. It worked.
Croatia probed, recycled, looked for angles. Panama shut doors. The first half became a grind, the kind that drains belief from favourites and feeds it to underdogs. When Jose Luis Rodriguez saw a header glance off Dominik Livakovic, kiss the underside of the bar and stay out, the warning was loud enough.
Croatia walked off at the break frustrated, their World Cup campaign threatening to stall before it had even begun.
Dalic rolls the dice
Dalic needed a different shape to the contest. He found it in the form of Ante Budimir.
The Osasuna record scorer came on at half-time, a classic centre-forward presence in a game crying out for one. Suddenly Panama’s back line had a reference point to worry about, a body to wrestle with, space to defend behind.
The pressure finally told in the 54th minute. Marco Pasalic, sharp and inventive, flicked a clever backheel into the path of Josip Stanisic on the right. Stanisic drove a low ball across the face of goal. At the far post, arriving with the timing of a man who lives for these moments, Budimir guided it calmly into the net.
One touch. One finish. One huge exhale.
The stadium flipped. Croatian fans, who had travelled in strong numbers, erupted. Flags flew, drums thudded, the sound rolling down from the stands as if the goal had cracked open their entire tournament.
Chances missed, margins thin
The goal changed the tone, but not the tension. Pasalic, buoyed by his role in the opener, soon had the chance to end the argument himself. Slipped clean through, one-on-one with Orlando Mosquera, he went for the kill.
Mosquera stood tall, blocked, and when the rebound sat up invitingly, Pasalic could only send it over the bar. A golden chance gone, and with it any sense that this would be a comfortable march to the finish.
Panama clung on, then pushed back. They never lost their edge, never lost their aggression. Christiansen’s side kept throwing bodies forward when they could, whipping in crosses, forcing corners. Seven in total by the end, each one another test for Livakovic and his defence.
The Croatian goalkeeper had to stay sharp, beating away efforts in a frantic second-half spell as the Canaleros chased the goal that would keep their World Cup alive. They played with intent, with what their coach later called “hunger” and “spirit”, and it showed.
But at this level, desire needs a ruthless partner. Panama lacked the finish that separates stories of brave resistance from tales of shock wins. Two games, no goals. That is why their 2026 journey ends here.
Christiansen, though, refused to turn on his players. “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. They [Croatia] put two shots on goal and scored one.”
Group L blows wide open
The earlier 0-0 draw between England and Ghana had already bent Group L out of shape. It now sits on a knife-edge.
England and Ghana both stand on four points. Croatia, revived and still breathing hard from this narrow win, move to three. Panama are out, but they are not done; they still have England to face, and they can still shape the story of others.
The arithmetic is brutally clear. Beat Ghana in Philadelphia and Croatia are through to the last 32. Anything less, and they start glancing nervously at events in the England–Panama game. England, for their part, simply need to avoid defeat against a side with nothing left to lose.
Inside the Croatian camp, there was an audible sense of release. Pasalic summed it up plainly: “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. We’ve been relieved of the burden and now we can move on.”
They will need that lighter step. Ghana will not offer them the same kind of puzzle as Panama, but the stakes will be higher, the air thicker, the margin for error even smaller.
Modric, though, has lived in these moments for more than a decade. Two hundred caps, still orchestrating, still leading a nation that refuses to fade away. The 2018 finalists have not come to North America to play a farewell tour.
They have come to see how deep this story can run, one more time.
