{"id":492587,"date":"2026-06-24T02:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492587\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T02:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:54:10","slug":"fifa-world-cup-croatia-stay-in-world-cup-hunt-after-1-0-win-over-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492587\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Croatia stay in World Cup hunt after 1-0 win over Panama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under Danish-born coach Thomas Christiansen, Panama have implemented a tight defensive structure that helped them secure their second-ever World Cup appearance.<\/p>\n

But it was the Panamanian offence that almost made the difference in the first half.<\/p>\n

In the 23rd minute, Jose Luis Rodriguez guided a header towards goal but the outstretched fingertips of Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic redirected the ball off the bar.<\/p>\n

The second half marked a clear momentum shift and the capacity crowd of 43,000 in Toronto with a strong Croatian majority erupted when Budimir tapped in a cross from Josip Stanisic.<\/p>\n

Croatia should have been two up minutes later, when a perfectly weighted pass from Modric sent Marco Pasalic alone speeding towards goal.<\/p>\n

Pasalic\u2019s first effort was stopped by keeper Orlando Mosquera and although the rebound came back to him he blasted an off-balance second attempt well over the bar.<\/p>\n

Panama kept pressing for the equaliser but they ultimately failed to find the net, extending their World Cup goalless streak.<\/p>\n

They face England next in what will be their final match of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Croatia have three points and will next face Ghana, who moved onto four points and second place in Group L after holding England to a goalless draw earlier.<\/p>\n

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under Danish-born coach Thomas Christiansen, Panama have implemented a tight defensive structure that helped them secure their second-ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9055,74,5831,103528,23203,10542,176515,36862,71,171762,3012,10937,78,20558,685,111,139,69,1523,50904,25443,213,2069,165,3608,6027,102,377],"class_list":["post-492587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-9055","tag-after","tag-alive","tag-contention","tag-croatia","tag-cup","tag-eliminated","tag-fifa","tag-from","tag-hardfought","tag-hopes","tag-hunt","tag-in","tag-kept","tag-last","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-panama","tag-progressing","tag-sports","tag-stay","tag-their","tag-were","tag-win","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}