Picture : the last dance for Luka Modric in the World Cup.
World Cup 2026 Statistics – Day 22 (July 2) – Round of 32
Portugal vs Croatia 2-1
*Portugal won a World Cup knockout stage match after trailing for the second time in their history, following the quareter-final against North Korea on 23 July 1966 (0-3 to 5-3).
*Croatia lost a World Cup knockout stage match after leading for the second time in their history, following the semi-final against France on 8 July 1998 (1-0 to 1-2).
*Croatia lost a match due to a goal conceded in second-half stoppage time for the first time in their World Cup history.
*Ivan Perišić reaches a tally of 7 World Cup goals. He is now Croatia’s all-time leading World Cup goal-scorer, surpassing Davor Šuker (6).
*Perišić has now scored in four different World Cups. He is the 6th player in history to achieve this.
*Perišić became just the second player in World Cup history to record both a goal and an assist across four different World Cups.
Messi is another one.
*Luka Modrić and Perišić has played in the World Cup for Croatia in 21st time together, setting new record.
Żmuda and Lato held the former record: 20 common games for Poland between 1974 and 1982.
*Gonçalo Ramos is the first player in World Cup history to score a winning goal for Portugal in second-half stoppage time.
*Gonçalo Ramos became the Portugal’s second-highest scorer (4 goals) in World Cup knockout stage history, behind Eusébio (6).
*All four Gonçalo Ramos World Cup goals in knockout stage. He is joint-second among players with the most goals in World Cup knockout stages without having scored in the group stage, alongside Andreas Brehme (Germany, 4) and behind Zinédine Zidane (France, 5)
*Gonçalo Ramos scores a goal every 42.5 minutes in World Cup knockout stages. Among players wit 4+ such goals, he has the third-best ratio in history, after:
Ernst Wilimowski (Poland, 30.0 minutes)
Just Fontaine (France, 38.6)
Eusébio is the next with 45.0.
*The second half of the game featured 18 minutes and 51 seconds of stoppage time.
This is the new record for stoppage time in a single period (1st half, 2nd half, or extra time) in World Cup history.
It surpassed the 14 minutes and 3 seconds from the first half of the England vs Iran match in 2022.
*Portugal will face Spain in the 2026 World Cup Round of 16.
The two nations have drawn in 6 of their last 7 meetings (except Spain’s 1-0 victory in the September 2022 Nations League).
Portugal defeated Spain on penalties in the Nations League final on 8 June 2025: it was their last meeting.