Croatia, Panama meet in Philadelphia with both teams chasing their first 2026 World Cup points

Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field will host a Group L fixture on Thursday afternoon that neither federation has been able to claim a foothold in: Croatia against Panama, with kickoff set for early-evening local time and both teams still searching for their first points of the 2026 World Cup. The match is one of the closing salvos in a 48-team tournament that has produced 177 goals in 60 games, the highest scoring rate, 2.94 per match, since Mexico 1970, and the kind of group finale that the expanded format was designed to manufacture: small nations with limited bench depth, given one final swing at a European heavyweight before the knockout bracket starts to fill.

Croatia arrived in North America carrying the residue of a run that took them to the 2018 final and a third-place finish in 2022, but the ledger through their first two fixtures reads blank. Zlatko Dalić's side has the squad depth that usually insulates a team from a slow start, and the experience of a generation that has played in deeper rounds than this. What they do not have, yet, is a goal that counts in the column. Panama, by contrast, came into the tournament as Concacaf's fourth-placed qualifier and the smallest federation in Group L by population. Theirs is a federation story rather than a curiosity. The Canaleros booked their place via the intercontinental playoff path, and every appearance on a World Cup pitch is a line in a ledger that, until now, contained only 2018.

The venue matters here, and not only as backdrop. Lincoln Financial Field has already hosted one of the historic afternoons of this tournament: Ivory Coast, led by Emerse Fae, became the first African side to reach the World Cup knockout stage in Philadelphia last week, the achievement Didier Drogba and Yaya Touré never managed in their storied careers. The stadium's grass has held both weight and weather through a heavy schedule, and the Philadelphia crowd, mixed and bilingual on Concacaf nights, will tilt toward a side wearing red and white before the anthems finish. Panama will not be playing in a foreign capital. They will be playing in something closer to a third home.

Croatia's tactical problem is the same one every possession-dominant side faces in this tournament: with 48 teams in the field, defensive blocks have been tighter and more numerous than in any World Cup since the format last expanded. Spain, France, England, and Argentina have all shown that even a wealth of attacking talent can be flattened by a low block until the 70th minute. Dalić will likely set up in the 4-3-3 that has been his preferred shape since the Russia campaign, with Luka Modrić's role now reduced to a metronomic 30 to 40 minutes off the bench, and the creative burden carried by younger feet. The question is whether Croatia's midfield can move the ball fast enough to drag Panama out of shape before the legs go.

For Panama, the tactical brief is simpler and the stakes are clearer. They are, by every available measure, the underdog. Their path to any positive result runs through set pieces, transition moments, and the kind of compressed defensive shape that Senegal deployed to good effect against Iraq in a 5-0 win that saw Pape Gueye score twice from long range off the bench. Senegal became the first African side ever to score five goals in a single World Cup match. The lesson, written across Group I, is that a team with nothing to lose and a settled low block can turn a group finale into a coin flip, even against a side with Croatia's pedigree.

The wider frame, though, sits above both dugouts. The 48-team format has delivered goals, storylines, and the kind of group-stage chaos that the tournament's organisers hoped for: an average of 2.94 per game, third-place-table mathematics alive across multiple groups on the final matchday, and a generation of players from federations that would not have travelled to a 32-team World Cup getting minutes on the biggest stage. FIFA's own channels have begun signalling what comes next: the United States is preparing a bid to host the 2038 World Cup, which would be the first edition with 64 teams. That announcement, made from the FIFA Telegram channel this week, sits a long way from Philadelphia on Thursday, but the philosophy underneath it is the same. The game is being deliberately widened, and widened again, and the matches being played in the next 48 hours are the proof of concept.

None of which resolves the immediate question for Dalić or his opposite number. Croatia need a win, or at least a goal, to restore the sense that the 2022 cycle was not the last gasp of this group of players. Panama need anything: a point, a goal, a performance that justifies the airfare. The expanded tournament has, so far, rewarded teams that arrive with a clear identity and a willingness to defend deep. Thursday's match, in a stadium already steeped in this tournament's history, will test whether Croatia can break one of those blocks, and whether Panama can build the kind of night that Ivory Coast built here a week ago.

Watch the kickoff time and the first 15 minutes. Croatia under Dalić have tended to start slow in this tournament, and Panama's best chance is the opening stretch, when the crowd is loudest and the legs are freshest. If the Canaleros are still level at the hour, the script writes itself.

Sources

• https://t.me/FIFAcom, FIFA Telegram channel, United States 2038 World Cup bid signalling (2026-06-26)
• https://t.me/TheAthletic, The Athletic Telegram channel, tournament coverage (2026-06-26)
• https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/jun/26/norway-v-france-world-cup-2026-live, Guardian live blog, Group I context and goal-rate data (2026-06-26)
• https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/jun/26/senegal-v-iraq-world-cup-2026-live, Guardian live blog, Senegal 5-0 Iraq match report (2026-06-26)
• https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/world-cup-group-i-scenarios-norway-and-france-play-for-first-place-senegal-and-iraq-for-round-of-32/, CBS Sports Group I scenarios and tournament mathematics (2026-06-26)
• https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/ivory-coast-achieve-what-didier-drogba-and-yaya-toure-could-not-with-appearance-in-world-cup-knockouts/, CBS Sports on Ivory Coast's knockout qualification in Philadelphia (2026-06-26)

Desk note: Monexus framed the fixture around the 48-team structural picture and Panama's federation story, rather than around the betting product that dominated the wire material on adjacent group finales.