🎥 Croatia labour, but dump out Panama! Colombia face CR7 for top spot 🔥

🎥 Croatia labour, but dump out Panama! Colombia face CR7 for top spot 🔥 Croatia earned its first win at the 2026 World Cup, bouncing back from the opening defeat to England. In their second Group L match, Modric and his teammates beat Panama 1-0 thanks to an Ante Budimir goal early in the second half. It was a crucial result, allowing Zlatko Dalic’s side to get off the mark in the standings and celebrate their number 10’s 200th appearance for the national team in the best possible way. It was far from a walk in the park. In the first half, in fact, Panama created the most dangerous chances. Midway through the half, a move involving Murillo and Martinez put the Croatian defense under pressure, but the follow-up effort was handled without too much trouble by Livakovic. Shortly after, Murillo was involved again with a precise cross for Rodriguez, who met it with a header. The Croatian goalkeeper got a touch on the ball, which then hit the crossbar. The turning point came in the 54th minute. Budimir, who had just come on for Musa, needed only a few minutes to make his mark. The move started down the right flank, where Pasalic set up Stanisic with a classy backheel. The defender found space to cross and delivered a perfect ball into the middle of the box, where Budimir was ready and made it 1-0. The lead gave Croatia more confidence, and a few minutes later they came close to doubling it. A mistake while playing out from the back by Panama allowed Modric to win the ball and send Marko Pasalic through on goal, one-on-one with Mosquera. The goalkeeper managed to parry the first attempt and, on the rebound, Pasalic failed to find the accuracy needed from a very tight angle. Trailing, Panama kept pushing until the very end, when Murillo had a free kick from the edge of the box, but blasted it well over. Thanks to this win, Croatia heads into the next match against Ghana with a good chance of qualifying for the round of 32. A draw could be enough to secure their place, while even a defeat might still leave some hope through qualification as one of the best third-placed teams. For Panama, however, the World Cup ends here. Colombia-Congo 1-0 Colombia go into the final matchday of Group K against Portugal with a place in the round of 32 already secured. The clash with Cristiano Ronaldo will mainly be about deciding top spot in the group, at least for the South Americans. It will also, however, be a more meaningful test to assess the real value of the Cafeteros , who are on maximum points but have not always looked convincing in their performances.  In the meantime, the Colombians are enjoying the excellent form of defender Munoz, scorer of his second goal of this World Cup. After the 3-1 win in their opener against Cannavaro’s Uzbekistan, the same group had also seen Congo surprise Portugal with a 1-1 draw. If that result may have seemed like the product of a particularly favorable day, the performance against Colombia confirmed the Africans’ solidity, as they managed to keep the score at 0-0 until the 76th minute, largely thanks to decisive saves from goalkeeper Mpasi. And late on, after Munoz’s goal, Congo also came close to equalizing, only to be denied by a great save from Vargas. Also in the stands was famous Congolese fan Lumumba Vea, the living statue. On the pitch, Congo struggled from the opening minutes, despite a Kayembe effort after just 48 seconds. From that moment on, however, control of the match passed almost entirely to Colombia, although the Cafeteros mostly tried their luck from distance. The numbers clearly highlighted Colombia’s superiority: after just 19 minutes, the shot count was 8 to 1, with five efforts on target compared to none for their opponents. As the minutes passed, however, Colombia’s attacking intensity dropped, allowing Congo to close down the spaces. At the start of the second half too, the South Americans were on top, with another crucial save by Mpasi from Luis Díaz. On the rebound that followed, Arias failed to hit the target. Once again, though, Colombia slowed down and coach Lorenzo had to intervene with some substitutions. Among them, the introduction of Córdoba was crucial, giving the attack more physical presence. It was one of his plays that sparked the move leading to Munoz’s decisive goal, helped by a deflection off Kapuadi that left Mpasi with no chance. It was a goal that rewarded the team that had created more over the course of the entire match and sent Colombia through to the round of 32. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.