No one will be able to question that Panama was not brave against Croatia and that it even flirted with a great feat on the second date of Group L of the 2026 World Cup, but the same haste of its style and daring led them to a 1-0 defeat.

A painful setback, but one that ultimately adjusted to what both teams worked on in the 90 minutes of the duel held in Toronto, Canada, and that will now force the Canalera squad to raffle their lives against England on the last date of this sector in order not to leave the World Cup without points.

While Croatia, with Ante Budimir's goal, solved all the problems they had during the 90 minutes to be able to contain the Panamanians and go out with their flags displayed for their last game against the Ghana team. The complexity of the match was about to spoil the Croatians' celebration of the 200 international matches of their greatest reference, Luka Modric, a figure that is only reserved for players of the stature of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi himself.

Panama knew that it had to go for the victory, especially after losing to Ghana on the first date, and this was understood in most of the actions, trying to complicate the existence of the Europeans who, despite the talent of their men, failed to work during the first half.

That is why they had a line of five defenders, four midfielders close together and José Fajardo as a reference. The plan closed the interior corridors to Modric, Kovacic and Baturina, and pushed Croatia into a predictable circulation, too lateral and without Modric's spark. The best Panamanian chance came in the 23rd minute. Murillo once again gained the upper hand on the right wing, crossed into the area and José Luis Rodríguez connected with a header that Livakovic deflected just enough to send it to the crossbar. It was the moment that could change the game and confirmed the damage that Panama was doing on Gvardiol's side. Croatia barely managed to react before ending the 45 minutes with a shot from Baturina and that is why coach Dalic made moves, taking off Musa and Gvardiol and bringing on Budimir and Kramaric, and the change took immediate effect.

The Europeans went more to the rival area with more presence between center backs and in the 54th minute the game was resolved. Stanisic appeared freely on the right and Budimir, alone in the small area, made it 0-1. Panama was unable to modify its style and saw how its arrivals in the Croatian area decreased and on the contrary, they forced their goalkeeper Mosquera to intervene against Marco Pasalic in a clear action shortly after. Christiansen moved the bench with Waterman, Azarias Londoño, Eric Davis and Tomás Rodríguez, but the Central American team mixed drive with haste.

The pressure of the draw between Ghana and England before this match meant that in the end Croatia was left with three points, behind the English and Ghanaians who were left with four points, leaving Panama behind without points and on the brink of elimination.