Croatia
GhanaThis was the classic expanded-format group finale: a side still fighting for position against a team that had done enough but wanted more. Sucic gave Croatia the lead with a second career international goal of the highest quality, and the match settled into a pattern where Ghana had just enough to stay dangerous without quite enough to take control. Luckassen's equaliser at 73 minutes had Croatia scrambling; but then Modrić — forty years old, now the holder of the record for the oldest World Cup assist in history — delivered the cross that Vlasic headed home with seven minutes remaining. Croatia took all three points, Ghana take third place, and Modrić takes the record books with him to the knockout stage.
Croatia
Croatia were precise, composed, and occasionally brilliant — Sucic's 31st-minute rocket from outside the box was the kind of goal that redefines a young player's international career in a single instant, and the Vatreni's structure throughout was everything Dalic demands. They were momentarily rocked when Ghana equalised at 73 minutes, but the response was the work of a side that has navigated every World Cup since 2018 with this same composure: Modrić, at forty years and 291 days old, delivered the assist for Vlasic's winner with unhurried authority. Croatia finish second in Group L and advance to face Portugal in Toronto — a test that will reveal far more about this generation's ceiling than Ghana did.
Ghana
Ghana were the more determined side in the second half than the first, and the equaliser they created at 73 minutes — Luckassen volleying home from Nuamah's free-kick — was a genuine quality moment from a team playing above expectation. The Black Stars had enough to stay dangerous throughout, and Fatawu and Semenyo created real problems on the counter when given room. But the manner of Vlasic's 83rd-minute header — Modrić providing the delivery, inevitably — was a reminder of the experience gap between a team approaching their ceiling and one that has been here many times before.