After a modest performance in Toronto, Croatia achieved a minimal victory against Panama (1:0) and thus registered the first three points at this World Championship in the second game of the group stage. The Panamanians looked very good at times, often threatened with quick transitions, and almost came close to punishing the Fire’s rather poor performance with a goal during the first half. They didn’t take advantage of their opportunities, and then Croatia woke up in the sequel with a goal Ante Budimir won in the 54th minute.
Often during the first part, the Panamanians attacked on the right wing, that is, on the left side of the Croatian defense. It was seen that Josko Guardiol he hasn’t fully recovered from his injury and has had trouble getting back into defense so he’s often Cristian Martínez threatened on that side. In the second part Ivan Perišić took the position of left back and closed that side better.
An interesting decision was made by FIFA after the match, perhaps even a controversial one. The man of the match award was not awarded to anyone from the winning team, i.e. Croatia. In the end, the aforementioned Cristian Martínez won that award, not the shooter Budimir, the assistant Josip Stanišićlegendary Luka Modric or “warrior” Martin Baturina… Let it be mentioned that the “player of the match” finished the match with 24 out of 34 correct passes, no created opportunities, two touches in the Croatian penalty area, zero out of one accurate dribbling, zero out of seven accurate crosses and one out of four accurate long balls.
