Ante Budimir came off the bench and did the one thing Panama desperately needed him not to do. His 54th-minute goal gave Croatia a 1-0 victory at BMO Field in Toronto on June 23, simultaneously ending Panama’s World Cup dream and giving Croatia its first points of the 2026 tournament.
The result left Panama with zero points from two matches and one group game still to play. Mathematically, they’re done. Croatia, meanwhile, finally has something to build on after a sluggish start to this World Cup cycle.
A milestone match and a substitute’s moment
The game itself was a tense, low-scoring affair that turned on a single moment of quality from a player who wasn’t even in the starting lineup. Budimir entered the match and needed fewer than ten minutes to find the back of the net, converting in the 54th minute to break a deadlock that had persisted through a cagey first half.
But the individual story of the night belonged to someone else entirely. Luka Modric, the 40-year-old metronome who has been orchestrating Croatia’s midfield for the better part of two decades, earned his 200th international cap.
