Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 with a stoppage-time Gonçalo Ramos goal and set up a clash with Spain
Perišić put Croatia ahead (53'), Cristiano Ronaldo equalised from the spot (68') and Gonçalo Ramos made it 2-1 in the 90th minute, set up by Rafael Leão. Portugal will face Spain in the last 16; Modrić and Croatia bow out.
Portugal reached the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup with an agonising comeback against Croatia (2-1) at BMO Field in Toronto, the ground on the shore of Lake Ontario that is the regular home of MLS side Toronto FC. On a tight night, with both teams leaning on their veterans, a Gonçalo Ramos goal in the 90th minute sent Luka Modrić's generation home.
Roberto Martínez lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Diogo Costa in goal; Cancelo, Rúben Dias, Renato Veiga and Nuno Mendes in defence; João Neves and Vitinha in front of them; and Bruno Fernandes, Pedro Neto and Rafael Leão supporting Cristiano Ronaldo. Opposite them, Zlatko Dalić trusted experience with Modrić and Kovačić in midfield and Ivan Perišić redeployed at full-back. And it was Perišić who struck first: in the 53rd minute he bundled home the opener and silenced the Portuguese support.
The Portuguese response was slow to take shape. In the 61st a Ronaldo goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR review, but the captain himself made no mistake from twelve yards in the 68th to make it 1-1. Martínez had freshened up the attack with Gonçalo Ramos —on for Cancelo— and the game turned into a relentless assault on Dominik Livaković's goal.
The closing stretch was a jittery back-and-forth of offside flags: the referee, with VAR's help, disallowed two Croatia goals (Šućić in the 81st and Gvardiol in the 90th). Just as the tie was drifting towards extra time, up popped Gonçalo Ramos: in the 90th minute, set up by Rafael Leão, he beat Livaković for the decisive 2-1. The striker, named man of the match with a 7.9 rating, settled it off the bench.
The numbers paint a tie tighter than the scoreline suggests: Portugal dominated possession (61%) but Croatia had more shots on target (six to three) and forced Diogo Costa into five saves. The xG (2.18 to 1.34) reflects a knockout decided by fine margins and by the depth of Portugal's bench.
Croatia, runners-up in 2018 and third in 2022, bow out of the World Cup and bring a golden era to a close: Modrić and Perišić went out fighting, but they are going home. Portugal, with a 41-year-old Ronaldo still able to take a decisive penalty, march on to the last 16 and already know their opponent: Spain, who thrashed Austria earlier the same day. It will be an Iberian derby for a place in the quarter-finals.