It had been another rainy day in Pennsylvania and with no roof at the Philadelphia Stadium, the risk of 65,000 people in ponchos left feeling miserable was real. Fortunately this predicted dead rubber turned out to be nothing of the kind, and with Luka Modric rolling back the years once again, the memories made were positive.
Both Croatia and Ghana qualified from Group L on the back of this result. Croatia deserved the three points, thanks two well-hit efforts, first from the man of the match, Petar Sucic, then, in the last knockings, Nikola Vlasic. Ghana, meanwhile, deservedly made the knockout rounds for the first time since 2010, even if Carlos Queiroz poked at his own achievement after the match by calling the expanded World Cup “vulgar”.
