Modric Achieves 200 Caps in Croatia's Tense Victory Over Panama

On a tight, nervous night in Toronto, the story kept circling back to the same figure. Luka Modric. Forty years old, 200 caps, still dictating the rhythm of a World Cup game as if time had simply decided to leave him alone.

Croatia’s captain joined one of football’s most exclusive clubs, becoming only the fourth male player to reach 200 senior international appearances, standing now alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kuwait’s Bader al-Mutawa. It is a number that sounds almost unreal, yet Modric treated it like just another job to be done.

His coach knew better.

“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,” Zlatko Dalic said afterwards, the admiration clear. “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.”

Those fans, a noisy red-and-white wall transported to Canada, did their part. So did the dressing room. After the final whistle Modric’s teammates pulled on black T-shirts emblazoned with “Infinite Legacy” and the number 200, a simple tribute to a player who has come to define an era of Croatian football.

But this night was not just about ceremony. Croatia’s tournament was on the line.

Dalic’s gamble changes the game

The first half did not feel like a celebration. It felt like a grind.

Panama, already fighting to stay alive in the competition, set up in a compact 5-4-1 that squeezed space and strangled Croatia’s usual passing lanes. Modric probed, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic shuffled the ball, but the red shirts rarely found room between the lines. Crosses were blocked, shots snatched at, frustration growing with every sideways pass.

Panama were not just defending, either. Thomas Christiansen’s side carried a threat on the break and came within inches of stunning Croatia. Jose Luis Rodriguez rose well to meet a cross and his header, helped by a deflection, looped onto the underside of Dominik Livakovic’s bar. For a heartbeat, Croatia froze. The ball bounced out. Their World Cup hopes stayed alive.

Dalic knew he had to change something. At the interval he turned to Ante Budimir, the Osasuna all-time top scorer, looking for a focal point and a different kind of chaos in the penalty area.

The pressure finally told.

In the 54th minute, Marco Pasalic produced the moment of invention the game had been begging for, a clever backheel that sliced open Panama’s right side and released Josip Stanisic. The defender drove low across the face of goal, and there was Budimir at the back post, timing his run, steadying himself, guiding the ball home with the assurance of a man who lives for that exact touch.

One chance. One clean finish. One enormous exhale from a nation.

The goal detonated the Croatian end of BMO Field. Flags whipped, flares smoked, Modric allowed himself a brief smile. The tension that had gripped his team began to loosen.

Pasalic could have killed the contest minutes later. Slipped through one-on-one, he opened his body and went for the finish, only for Orlando Mosquera to stand tall and block. The rebound fell kindly, the net gaped, but Pasalic leaned back and sent the ball over the bar. A golden chance gone, a reminder that this was still a knife-edge affair.

Even so, the shift at half-time had done its work. Croatia looked more direct, more dangerous, more like a side refusing to let their World Cup slip away after an opening defeat to England.

Panama fall, fighting

For Panama, this was the end of their 2026 journey, and it will sting because they never stopped believing they could extend it.

Christiansen’s team had shown genuine quality at times in this tournament, and again here. They defended with discipline, broke with purpose and, as Croatia wobbled early on, sensed vulnerability. Rodriguez’s header off the bar was the clearest warning, but there were others, half-chances and promising moves that never quite turned into the moment they needed.

Their problem was brutally simple: they could not score.

Two games, zero points, no goals. At this level, that is a death sentence.

“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, defiant despite elimination. “They [Croatia] put two shots on goal and scored one.”

The numbers told a similar story. Panama won seven corners, swung ball after ball into the box, and forced Livakovic into several sharp saves during a frantic spell in the second half. They pushed Croatia back, asked questions, kept swinging until the final whistle.

What they lacked was the cold, ruthless touch that Budimir showed at the other end.

Now they head towards a final fixture against England with nothing tangible to play for, but with the chance to leave a mark on the group. The Canaleros may be out, yet they still have a say in who goes through.

Group L blown open

This win did more than save Croatia’s campaign. It ripped Group L wide open.

Earlier in the day, England and Ghana had cancelled each other out in a goalless draw, a result that left both on four points. Croatia’s victory in Toronto moved them to three, close enough now to feel the breath of the knockout rounds.

The arithmetic is brutally clear. Beat Ghana in Philadelphia and Croatia are in the last 32. Anything less, and they are at the mercy of others. England, by contrast, need only avoid defeat against already-eliminated Panama to secure their passage.

The pressure sits firmly on Dalic’s players, but there was a different tone in the mixed zone afterwards. Less anxiety. More steel.

“We were pretty aware of our quality and the situation that we were in,” Pasalic admitted. “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.”

Move on to Ghana. Move on to another must-win night. Move on with a 40-year-old conductor still setting the tempo.

Modric has already taken Croatia on one unforgettable World Cup run, all the way to the 2018 final. Now, with 200 caps behind him and the clock ticking on a remarkable international career, the question hangs over this tournament:

How many more nights like this does he have left in him?