Croatia beats Panama 1-0, keeps World Cup hopes alive

Ante Budimir's 54th-minute goal lifted Croatia to a 1-0 win over Panama at Toronto Stadium and kept its World Cup path open, while Panama was eliminated with one match remaining. The night also marked Luka Modrić's 200th international appearance, a milestone that put Croatia's veteran core at the center of the result.

The decisive move came from Josip Stanišić on the right, where his low cross found Budimir at the back post for the finish that settled the match. Croatia did not need a barrage of chances; it needed one clean sequence at the right moment, and it got it in the second half. Panama, meanwhile, could not answer after conceding and left Toronto empty-handed.

The result carried outsized weight because the 2026 World Cup is the largest in the tournament's history, with 48 teams, 104 matches and host cities spread across Canada, Mexico and the United States. FIFA's schedule runs from the opening whistle on June 11 to the final on July 19, leaving little margin for error in a competition where each point can reshape a team's route through the group stage.

For Croatia, the win was less about style than control. Modrić's 200th cap showed how much the team still leans on players who have carried it through multiple cycles, while Budimir's finish and Stanišić's service supplied the immediate payoff. In a field this large, a narrow victory can keep a campaign alive and a single missed result can close it down quickly.