AL DAAYEN, Qatar — When Luka Modric made his international debut for Croatia in March 2006, at the age of 21, Argentina and a 19-year-old Lionel Messi were his opponents. That day, Modric won the friendly encounter 3-2, Messi scored his first international goal and it was the beginning of a career-long rivalry for club (Real Madrid vs. Barcelona) and country.
Little did Modric know that 16 years later, his World Cup career (and possibly his international career) would end at the hands of the same player and opposition with a 3-0 semifinal defeat. Even if he plays in the third-place playoff on Saturday against either France or Morocco, his last big moment on football’s grandest stage — having been a finalist in 2018 against France and semifinalist in Qatar — was really his 161st cap on Tuesday night in the Lusail Iconic Stadium.
Despite a solid start against Argentina, including a beautiful nutmeg on Alexis Mac Allister after 30 minutes, it became too difficult for Croatia to recover once Messi and Julian Alvaraz scored in a five-minute spell before half-time. It was not the right game for Modric to have an off day but, at 37, he can’t always keep producing magic.
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To qualify for another final, Croatia needed him to be at his absolute best: to control everything like he usually does, to be precise on set pieces, to create chances and bring fluidity to the game. But it was not the case and his supporting cast were below par too.
Argentina and their four central midfielders made Modric look average at times. Constantly under pressure while on the ball, he made a host of wrong decisions after Argentina’s first goal and failed to make the impact on the game many expected.
