Half-time substitute Ante Budimir scored in the 54th minute as Croatia eliminated Panama from World Cup contention with a tightly fought 1-0 victory at Toronto Stadium.

The Group L clash on Tuesday saw 34-year-old Budimir score his first World Cup goal and fifth in a competitive fixture for his country.

Croatia remain third in the group with three points heading into the final match day, but they can guarantee a top-two finish with a victory over Ghana in their final match on Saturday in Philadelphia.

Panama are still seeking their first point, five matches into their World Cup history, having also lost 1-0 to Ghana in their 2026 opener in Toronto last week.

However, despite playing the first two matches without injured talisman Adalberto Carrasquilla, Los Canaleros have a goal difference six better than at this stage in their first World Cup appearance in 2018.

Budimir put Croatia in front on what was easily their best attack of the match to that point on Tuesday.

Josip Stanisic combined with Marco Pasalic to get down the right, and then struck a well-weighted cross to the top of the 6-yard box.

Panama goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera dived to try and intercept the service but couldn’t reach it, and Budimir showed up at the back post to guide in a composed finish into an open goal.

With that, the match erupted for about 15 minutes.

Three minutes after the goal, Croatia captain Luka Modric played Pasalic in alone on goal from his own half. Mosquera sized up Pasalic and charged from his line at the right time to smother the initial attempt, and Pasalic fired wide from a poor angle on the rebound.

Panama responded to force Dominik Livakovic into three stops inside of a minute. The third was probably the best, as Livakovic leapt to deny Carlos Harvey’s header from a corner lofted to the back post.

The second-half hydration break followed that sequence, and perhaps disrupted Panama’s momentum, with Livakovic unthreatened in the final stages.

The Central Americans will now look to play spoilers against England in their finale on Saturday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Earlier on Tuesday, England and Ghana settled for a 0-0 draw, with both having four points.

[Aljazeera]

Bosnia and Herzegovina are on the verge of reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time after beating Qatar 3-1 in their final Group B match.

Bosnia move on to four points and are in a strong position to be one of the best eight third-placed teams to progress to the last 32.

Qatar, meanwhile, exit at the group stage, just as they did four years ago when they hosted the World Cup.

Goals from Bosnia’s youngest-ever World Cup player, 18-year-old Kerim Alajbegovic, and an own goal by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada looked to have put the European side in the box seat.

However, Qatar made a game of it when 35-year-old Hassan Alhaydos, their most capped player, pulled one back late in the first half.

Ermin Mahmic then put the game beyond the Qataris when he scored for the second successive match in the 80th minute.

Bosnia flew out of the blocks as soon as the whistle went, testing Abunada twice inside the first four minutes.

First, Abunada denied Ermedin Demirovic’s fierce drive, and then he tipped away Ivan Sunjic’s shot.

Bosnia’s dominance finally paid off, but it was not the 40-year-old talisman Edin Dzeko who broke the deadlock, but the sublimely talented teenage left-wing.

Abunada was unable to do anything about Alajbegovic’s screamer from outside the area, after he had beaten two players.

The youngster was mobbed by his teammates, and once they had trotted back to the halfway line, he stood and milked the moment, putting a finger to his lips.

Dzeko, winning his 150th cap, came more and more into the game, and not wishing to have his thunder stolen by the new kid on the block, he played an integral role in their second five minutes later.

His shot took a wicked deflection off Sultan Albrake and then Abunada on its way into the net.

Dzeko was well into his stride now, and he broke clear a few minutes later, his shot beating Abunada but rebounding off the post.

Bosnia’s earlier sprightliness dipped in the heat, and it was the doyen of Qatari football, Alhaydos, who repaid coach Julen Lopetegui’s faith by slotting home in the 42nd minute.

The Bosnian defence failed to learn from that, and in time added on, they had the far post to thank for keeping their noses in front as Pedro Miguel’s shot came back off it.

Alhaydos’s World Cup, and perhaps his distinguished international career, ended in tears as he trudged disconsolately off the pitch, injured in the 55th minute.

Chances were few and far between until Esmir Bajraktarevic stole in from the right wing and came close to emulating Alajbegovic’s effort, but Abunada turned it away for a corner.

Bosnian frustration gave way to ecstasy when Mahmic prodded the ball home – the scorer ripping his shirt off in celebration, and the 21-year-old paid little notice to being booked for it.

[Aljazeera]

Apparently, Sri Lanka are about to begin a Test series against West Indies today [Thursday]. Huge if true, because that would mean that Sri Lanka still have a Test team. And that West Indies also still have a Test team. Sri Lanka haven’t played this format for exactly a year, and West Indies haven’t played since December 2025. Sri Lanka have 12 Tests in the entire two-year World Test Championship [WTC] 2025-27 cycle, which is the minimum allowed amount. West Indies have 15 Tests, one of those being a non-WTC game against Afghanistan.

This is the lay of Test cricket in 2026. It doesn’t matter that West Indies produced very arguably the greatest Test team in the history of the sport in the 1980s. It doesn’t matter that Sri Lanka produced Test cricket’s most prolific wicket-taker, in Muttiah Muralitharan. It mainly matters that both have tiny cricket economies in comparison to most other sides, and as such, they have each been shunted deep into Test cricket second-classhood – for this cycle at least.

But here is a chance to prove they deserve more matches in this format. Sri Lanka have been a mid-table team in the three WTC cycles so far; they ended seventh, fifth and sixth, respectively. West Indies, meanwhile, have generally been a lower-table team; they finished eighth each of the three times. Both sides will see this as an opportunity to push for more matches.