Luka Modric made history at the FIFA World Cup as the 40-year-old helped Croatia defeat Ghana 2-1 and finish second in Group L
Luka Modric has become the oldest player to record an assist at the World Cup as Croatia defeated Ghana 2-1 to finish second in Group L
After Derrick Luckassen cancelled out Petar Sucic‘s opener for Croatia, Modric’s corner was headed in by Nikola Vlasic with seven minutes to go as Zlatko Dalic’s side leapfrogged their opponents into second, with Ghana ending the group stage in third
After neither side managed a shot in the opening 15 minutes, Croatia started to click into gear as Vlasic struck the left post with an attempt from distance before Ivan Perisic’s header was comfortably saved by Benjamin Asare
The breakthrough eventually came just after the half-hour mark through Sucic, who picked out the bottom-left corner from outside the box following a clever move from Mateo Kovacic
Ghana’s only shot in the first half came through Antoine Semenyo, who fired narrowly wide of the post from a tight angle, while Abdul Fatawu’s long-range strike flew over the bar after the break
The Black Stars controlled proceedings after the break, however, and found their leveller in the 73rd minute as Luckassen side-footed past Dominik Livakovic from Ernest Nuamah’s brilliant free-kick
The equaliser seemed to wake Croatia up, and Mario Pasalic saw a fierce shot tipped over the bar by Asare, only for Vlasic to head in from the resulting corner and clinch all three points
Despite finishing second and third, respectively, at the last two World Cups, Croatia were seen as a team who were past their best, especially after their opening defeat to England at this year’s edition
However, as they often do time and time again, Croatia have proved they cannot be taken lightly, bouncing back from that loss to the Three Lions with back-to-back wins and securing second place in the group
Not much more needs to be said about Modric, who created a match-high four chances while recording the most touches (102) and accurate passes (82) of any player, with his assist, at 40 years and 291 days, putting him into the history books
Martin Baturina did much of the dirty work, as the Como midfielder won the most duels of any Croatia player (eight), while also recovering possession most often for his side (six) and drawing the most fouls (five)
As things stand, Croatia are set to face Portugal in the round of 32, and Ghana, who have secured progression despite their defeat, will go up against Colombia, though they could switch opponents depending on the outcome of Portugal’s clash with Colombia later on
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Croatia vs Ghana stats from their 2026 FIFA World Cup Group L meeting in Philadelphia on 27 June
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
- Croatia have reached the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup for the fourth time, doing so on each of the last three occasions (2018, 2022, 2026) after only doing so once in their first four appearances at the tournament (1998).
- Ghana are through to the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup for the third time in their history after 2006 (round of 16) and 2010 (quarter-finals).
- Ghana are without a win in their last six games against UEFA nations in all competitions (D2 L4), while they’ve recorded just one win in their last 16 matches against such opposition (D6 L9), a 2-0 friendly win over Switzerland in November 2022.
- Croatia (0.42) against Ghana (0.73) had the third-lowest combined expected goals total for a match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup (1.15) behind only Paraguay v Australia (0.79) and Uruguay v Spain (1.06).
- Nine of Ghana’s last 11 FIFA World Cup goals have come in the second half of games.
- Petar Sucic (22y 245d) is the second-youngest player to score for Croatia at the FIFA World Cup behind only Josko Gvardiol against Morocco in 2022 (20y 328d).
- Petar Sucic’s opener for Croatia was the 28th goal from outside the box at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the most at a single edition of the tournament since 1994 (30).
- Luka Modric (40y 291d) is the oldest player on record (since 1966) to provide an assist at the FIFA World Cup.
- Nikola Vlasic has scored in three of his last four starts for Croatia in all competitions, with all three goals coming in different years (2024, 2025 and 2026).
- Derrick Luckassen is the fourth Ghanaian to score on their FIFA World Cup debut after Draman Haminu in 2006, Osman Bukari in 2022 and Caleb Yirenkyi in 2026.
- Ivan Perisic is making his 20th appearance for Croatia at the FIFA World Cup, all of which have come as starts; the only outfielders to make more appearances with 100% of them as starts are Paolo Maldini (23), Diego Maradona (21) and Uwe Seeler (21).
- The average age of Croatia’s starting XI against Ghana (30y 94d) was their second-oldest for a FIFA World Cup match, behind only their side that won the third-place play-off 2-1 against Netherlands in 1998 (30y 126d).
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