Luka Modric Reaches 200 Caps as Croatia Defeats Panama

On a cool, anxious night in Toronto, everything kept circling back to the same slight figure in the No 10 shirt. Forty years old, 200 caps deep, still dictating the rhythm of a World Cup game as if time had forgotten his name.

This was Luka Modric’s night. Croatia simply borrowed it to save their tournament.

Modric joins the 200 club

The numbers are staggering. Modric became only the fourth male player in history to reach 200 senior international appearances, stepping into a club previously reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kuwait’s Bader al-Mutawa. That is not just longevity. That is a career stretched across eras.

Zlatko Dalic knew exactly what it meant.

“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,” the Croatia manager said afterwards. “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 tribute was understated but telling. Black T-shirts, “Infinite Legacy” emblazoned across the chest, the number 200 beneath it, worn by his teammates in the post-match celebrations. A simple message for a player who has come to define a generation.

Panama’s plan, Croatia’s frustration

For all the sentiment, Croatia still arrived under pressure. Beaten by England on the opening day, they walked into a tight, disciplined Panama side fighting to stay alive.

Thomas Christiansen set his team up in a compact 5-4-1 that squeezed space between the lines and asked Croatia to solve a problem they initially had no answer to. Passing lanes clogged. Wingers funneled wide. Crosses cleared. The first half became a study in frustration.

Panama were not just spoilers. They carried a threat of their own. Jose Luis Rodriguez came closest, his header glancing off a defender and looping onto the underside of Dominik Livakovic’s bar, a reminder that one misjudgment could have left Croatia staring at the brink.

The tension grew. Modric probed, switched play, tried to quicken the tempo, but the final pass never quite arrived. Croatia trudged down the tunnel at half-time with the score goalless and the group table gnawing at the back of their minds.

Dalic’s gamble pays off

Dalic did not wait. He changed the shape of the game with one decision.

On came Ante Budimir at the interval, a classic centre-forward presence to occupy the three Panama centre-backs and give Croatia a fixed point in the box. The impact was immediate. The back line dropped a step. Midfielders hesitated. Space began to open between the lines.

The pressure finally told in the 54th minute.

Marco Pasalic, bright and inventive, produced a deft backheel that sliced through Panama’s defensive block and released Josip Stanisic on the right. The defender drove to the byline and whipped a low cross through the six-yard box. Waiting at the far post was Budimir, Osasuna’s all-time top scorer, who passed the ball into the net with the calm of a man who has seen this picture a thousand times before.

The goal detonated in the stands. Croatian supporters, who had spent much of the first half biting nails and cursing near-misses, erupted in red-and-white noise. A campaign that had threatened to unravel suddenly had a lifeline.

Pasalic should have killed the game soon after. Slipped through one-on-one, he had time and space, but Orlando Mosquera stood tall, blocked the first effort, and watched the rebound fly over the bar. A huge let-off for Panama, and a warning that Croatia’s margin for error remained slim.

Still, Dalic’s adjustment had flipped the contest. With Budimir pinning defenders and Modric orchestrating behind, Croatia finally looked like themselves again.

Panama fight to the end

For Panama, this was the night their 2026 journey ended, but not the night their spirit broke.

Christiansen’s side refused to fade. They pressed higher, chased second balls, and turned the final half-hour into a series of scrambles in and around Livakovic’s area. Seven corners told their story. So did the Croatian goalkeeper’s growing workload, as he was forced into several sharp saves during a frantic spell that left hearts in mouths on the Croatia bench.

“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.”

Panama’s problem all tournament had been brutally simple: they could not score. The near-miss from Rodriguez, the late flurries, the set pieces – all came and went without the net bulging. Two games, zero points, and now only pride to play for against England.

Group L blows wide open

The stakes around this game sharpened after England’s 0-0 draw with Ghana earlier in the day. That result left both England and Ghana on four points. Croatia, with this narrow win, moved to three. Suddenly Group L has no passengers, only calculations.

For Croatia, the path is clear. Beat Ghana in Philadelphia and they are through to the last 32. Anything less and they will be looking over their shoulder, hoping Panama can disrupt England, who need only avoid defeat against the already-eliminated Canaleros to progress.

Inside the Croatia camp, the mood has shifted from anxiety to something closer to defiant belief. Pasalic captured it bluntly.

“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,” he said.

They move on with momentum, with their campaign alive, and with a captain who keeps bending the rules of age. Modric, at 200 caps and counting, still walks into these nights as if they belong to him.

The question now is simple: how many more can he drag Croatia through?