Croatia Defeats Slovenia 2-1 in Friendly Match

Dallas. Alternative player Mario Pasalic scored the decisive goal in the final moments of the game, leading Croatia to defeat neighboring team Slovenia 2-1 in a friendly international football match.

With this victory on Sunday night, Croatia will step into the upcoming World Cup with a happy result.

This was Croatia's final preparation match before departing for the World Cup, which is scheduled to be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Croatia, which has reached at least the final four in the last two World Cups, will begin its World Cup journey on June 17 in Dallas against England.

Captain Luka Modric, 40, possibly playing his last international match on his country's soil, gave Croatia the lead early in the second half. He utilized Perisic's pass in the 51st minute, scoring an excellent goal from the edge of the penalty box.

This was Modric's 29th goal in his 198th international match. However, in the 83rd minute, Slovenia's substitute player Andraz Sporar capitalized on a mistake, an own-goal-like back pass from Croatia's Martin Baturina, to score and bring the game to a 1-1 tie.

Just as the game was expected to end in a draw, in the third minute of added time, Pasalic directly hit the net with a volley from a ball that the Slovenian defender failed to clear inside the penalty box. At the start of the game, Croatia's goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic made some important saves, stopping Jan Oblak's shot.

Earlier, in the first preparation match held in Rijeka last Tuesday, Croatia was defeated 2-0 by Belgium. Croatia, in World Cup Group 'E', will face Ghana and Panama besides England.