Croatia’s lone goal leaves Panama in sea of sorrow

It was heartbreak for Panama at the Toronto Stadium as a close 1-0 loss to Croatia meant the Canal Men were officially eliminated from the 2026 World Cup. In a tightly contested game, a 54th minute goal from substitute Ante Budimir was all it took for Croatia to secure the three points.

The win puts them third in Group L and a win or a draw against Ghana in their final match should be enough to take the former runners to the knockouts. 

Both teams came into the game knowing that a loss would send them home and there was an intensity present throughout the 90 minutes.

There was a certain ‘jab-jab, thrust-thrust’ rhythm to the game, but unfortunately, both teams seemed to fall short when it came to actually delivering the knockout blow.

They struggled with finishing in the final third, something which has become a pattern in this World Cup despite the high number of goals that we’ve seen. The first 45 minutes were bookended by a chance at either end for the respective teams, but neither team was able to break the deadlock. 

Although their World Cup hopes came to an end with today’s loss, there are a lot of positives to take back for the Panamanian team. Put into a group with two European giants in England and Croatia as well as Ghana, one of the more successful African teams in the competition, they were written off before the tournament started.

However, they didn’t go down easy. They controlled the majority of possession against Ghana and had a few opportunities, only to concede an injury time goal that wiped out their efforts over the entire 90 minutes.

More impressively, they proved to be a tough team for Croatia and again never lost possession of the ball for too long. Losing 1-0 against a team that finished second and third, respectively, over the last two tournaments showed a positive future for Panamanian football. 

This World Cup has seen a lot of teams sit in a low-block and park the bus when faced with stronger opposition and this strategy has seen some success. Just earlier in the day, Ghana employed this to thoroughly infuriate England.

Panama, however, has refused to do this, and while this decision may be praised by football purists, the cost of their stubbornness was early elimination. The problem for Panama was that despite contesting the ball in midfield and creating opportunities, it all comes to nothing if they can’t finish those chances in the back of the net.

Their best chance came in the 67th minute, when Michael Amir Murillo took a shot from the right side of the box that forced goalkeeper Livakovic to make a save that pushed the ball back to Murillo’s feet.

At this point, Murillo should have looked for a pass as he was almost perpendicular to the post but he elects instead to launch another shot that Livakovic blocks again. It’s good goalkeeping on Livakovic’s part, but it’s poor decision making on Murillo’s, and it was a pattern that seemed to repeat for Panama over their two games. 

Croatia will be relieved to get their first points, but they need to improve their actions in the final third if they hope to make a deep run during this tournament. It was an unconvincing performance from Zlatko Dalic’s men, who were equally lucky that Panama didn’t take advantage of their chances.

The sole goal of the game came through half-time substitute Ante Budimir, who scored eight minutes after coming on. It was a great build-up on the wing through right-back Josip Stanisic, who had a little give and go with winger Pasalic before getting into space and firing a cross into the box.

Panamanian goalkeeper Mosquera attempted to stop the cross, but unfortunately, the ball was just out of reach and instead found itself in front of Budimir, who made no mistake on his shot. 

The men in red and white could easily have doubled the lead in the next few minutes after a terrific end-to-end run that ended in poor fashion due to forward Pasalic’s bad decision-making.

A Panamanian corner in the 56th minute was cleared out to midfielder Barcenas, who quickly found his pockets picked by the incoming Croatians. The ball was taken up the pitch by captain Luka Modric, who was making his 200th appearance for his nation, and in a moment that recalled the vintage Luka magic, he threaded the pass to forward Pasalic, who was clear of any defenders.

If you pause the moment just before Pasalic takes a shot, you would be surprised to learn that the play didn’t result in a goal. Pasalic was ahead of all the Panamanian defenders and had a teammate open to his right, but still decided to attempt a shot on goalkeeper Mosquera.

The goalkeeper had taken a risk by rushing Pasalic which left the other Croatian player with a completely free view of the net, but it ended up paying off due to Pasalic’s poor decision-making. 

Of course, a missed opportunity won’t be talked about as much if the team comes away with the win, but Croatia will have to do better if they want to make another serious run in the tournament. They are now sitting pretty to make the knockouts as one of the best third-placed teams.

A win against Ghana would solidify a position in the knockout stages, but Croatia will have a tough time breaking down a team that conceded zero goals against England today.

Zlatko Dalic will need Modric and Perisic to turn back the time and produce some moments of magic if Croatia are to secure all three points against Ghana on June 27 in their final group game.