Ghana’s Black Stars suffered their first loss in the ongoing World Cup campaign after a 2-1 defeat to Croatia in their last Group L game in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Derrick Luckassen scored for Ghana to cancel out Petar Sucic‘s opener for Croatia before Luka Modric’s corner was headed in by Nikola Vlasic with seven minutes to go.
Meanwhile, no side managed a shot in the opening 15 minutes, but Croatia almost grabbed the lead when Vlasic struck the left post with an attempt from distance before Ivan Perisic’s header was comfortably saved by Benjamin Asare.
The deadlock was broken just after the half-hour mark through Sucic, who picked out the bottom-left corner from outside the box following a clever move from Mateo Kovacic.
The equaliser seemed to wake Croatia up, and Mario Pasalic saw a fierce shot tipped over the bar by Asare, only for Vlasic to head in from the resulting corner and hand all three points to the Europeans.
Ghana to face Colombia
The win saw Croatia go above Black Stars into second, with Ghana ending the group stage in third. With Zlatko Dalic’s side securing the runners-up spot, they will face Portugal in a round-of-32 tie.
Ghana, on the other hand, will face Colombia.
Meanwhile, Modric has become the oldest player to record an assist at the World Cup.
