On the night when a 40-year-old Luka Modric became the fourth member of the sport’s ultra-exclusive 200-cap club on the men’s side for Croatia, Ante Budimir rescued their World Cup campaign with the only goal of a tight match.

It was the solitary goal scored all day in Group L and puts Zlatko Dalic’s side a point behind England and Ghana. Panama, meanwhile, are eliminated and have yet to secure a point in five World Cup matches between the 2018 edition and this one.

Modric joined Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kuwait’s Bader al-Mutawa in recording his 200th senior appearance for his nation and was the beneficiary of ear-splitting support from Croatia’s robust presence here.

This contest of veteran teams threatened both with reaching the end of the line. The Croatian core that lifted a country of under 4 million people to the improbable heights of a 2018 World Cup final and a third place in 2022 is ageing out and badly necessitated points after a sloppy 4-2 opening defeat to England.

Panama, for their part, have quietly told an underappreciated sporting story. This generation of Canaleros, mostly on the wrong side of 30 as well, has taken its nation places it had never been in international play. To the knockout stages at the 2024 Copa América, at the expense of the United States no less. To the final of the 2025 Concacaf Nations League, again beating the US in the semi-finals. To a third silver medal at the Gold Cup in 2023, knocking the US out on penalties that time.

During that run, they had no compunction about how they went about their business, no concerns about favouring function over form. They played with a lot of defenders, always, packing in deep, hitting opponents on the break, grinding them down with their relentless physicality, killing off games through every trick there is – and perhaps isn’t yet.

They had belief, too, their Danish-Spanish manager Thomas Christiansen proclaimed before the tournament: “Our faith moves mountains.”

But there are limitations to faith and the bunker-and-counter gambit. Especially when you lack the attacking talent to make your moments matter. They have yet to score at this World Cup, after holding Ghana until the 95th minute in their opener, when Caleb Yirenkyi’s close-range goal finally felled Los Canaleros.

The first half was awkwardly paced, yet the cadence was predictable. Panama invited the Croatians deep into their half, daring them to play through their tightly packed 5-4-1 formation. When such a wave would crash up against the rocky Panamanian shoreline, the Canaleros would thunder forward with speculative early balls out wide.

But they lacked precision and manpower going forward, endlessly popping crosses to an outnumbered José Fajardo. Where possible, Croatia would then counter-counterattack, only to find all the spaces jammed up again. The Croatian plan mostly devolved to sending crosses into the maw of Panama’s powerful defence or to attempt to dispatch a 37-year-old Ivan Perisic into space.

Rinse. Repeat.

The closest either side got in the first half came after Cristian Martínez had put his shot right at Dominik Livakovic. Amir Murillo caught up with a through ball up the right in the 23rd minute and dropped it on to the noggin of José Luis Rodríguez. His mighty standing header was deflected off the underside of the bar by Livakovic and scrambled away.

The cumulative product for the first half between the sides was three shots for an xG of 0.11.

In the 54th minute, the game finally broke open as the overlapping Josip Stanisic met a lovely through ball from Marco Pasalić and whipped his cross out of Orlando Mosquera’s range. Budimir, the half-time substitute, capably turned the ball into the net at the far post.

Forced out of their cocoon at last, Panama pushed forward and started leaving much bigger gaps. Modric dispatched Pasalic to lope into this unclaimed territory just minutes later on one such Croatian break, but he was denied once by Mosquera and missed the target on a tricky rebound.

Much as he had against England, Livakovic proved a reliable shot stopper, parrying several Panamanian finishes from close range. But before long, Panama’s push was reduced to desperate hacks at half-chances and ineffectual corner kicks.

The mountain was unmoved by the faith.

If the spine of both these teams came to North America to indulge in something of a last dance, one of them will be played off the stage against England on Saturday, irrespective of the result. The other may carry on for a while longer. And Modric, subbed off to a hero’s ovation after 81 minutes, may pad by a few more the final number of caps that they will engrave beside his name on plaques all over the country whose side he has orchestrated for over two decades.