For 73 minutes at Lincoln Financial Field, Croatia looked in serene control of their own destiny. For ten furious minutes after that, control slipped away, and the Group L opener threatened to become a story of Ghana's defiance rather than European poise. Then Luka Modric stood over a corner, swung it into the danger, and Nikola Vlasic rose to head Croatia back in front and eventually to a 2-1 win.

It was the kind of afternoon that reminds you why tournament football rewards nerve as much as talent. Croatia had done the hard part, taken the lead through Petar Sucic and managed the rhythm of the game with the unhurried authority of a side that has been here before. Ghana, though, refused to be extras in someone else's script, and when Derrick Luckassen turned in an equaliser the match tilted on its axis.

In the end the difference was experience and a single moment of quality from the game's oldest, wisest head. Modric, so often the metronome, became the provider, and Vlasic supplied the finish. Croatia leave Philadelphia with three points and the sense that they can win in more ways than one.

Sucic sets the tone

The opening goal carried the fingerprints of Croatia's midfield pedigree. In the 31st minute Mateo Kovacic threaded possession into space and Petar Sucic did the rest, shaping a right-footed shot from outside the box that curled beyond the goalkeeper and nestled into the bottom-left corner. It was a strike of real conviction, the sort a young player remembers for the rest of his career.

For a while it felt like the platform for something more comfortable. Croatia knocked the ball around with patience, using Kovacic as a fulcrum and inviting Ghana to chase shadows. The lead was slender but the control was not, and every pass seemed designed to drain the tempo and the belief out of their opponents.

Yet a one-goal cushion is a fragile thing in a World Cup group, and Croatia's failure to add a second before the interval would loom larger as the second half wore on. The margin left the door ajar, and Ghana, sensing it, began to lean on it with growing conviction after the break.

Ghana strike back

The equaliser, when it arrived in the 73rd minute, was the reward for Ghana's persistence and a triumph for their willingness to load the box at set pieces. Ernest Nuamah delivered a cross following a dead-ball situation, and Derrick Luckassen was there at very close range to steer a left-footed finish into the bottom-right corner. The celebration was tinged with anxiety as the officials checked the technology.

VAR confirmed what Ghana already believed: the goal stood. The scoreline read Croatia 1, Ghana 1, and suddenly a match that had drifted along on Croatia's terms was a genuine contest again. Nuamah's delivery had been precise, Luckassen's movement sharper still, and the reward was parity when it mattered.

For a spell after the goal Ghana carried the momentum, buoyed by the roar of an equaliser hard-earned. They had answered a moment of individual brilliance with a moment of collective organisation, and the sense grew that a point, perhaps even more, was within reach. It was exactly the kind of resistance that can define an underdog's tournament.

Modric and Vlasic decide it

Croatia's response was the mark of a serious side. Rather than retreat into caution, they leaned on their most reliable weapons, and in the 83rd minute the game turned on a corner. Modric, with all the composure of a man who has decorated the biggest stages in the sport, floated the ball into the centre of the box, and Nikola Vlasic met it with a header that flashed into the bottom-left corner.

There was a symmetry to it. Croatia had opened the scoring with youth and closed it with the enduring class of Modric, whose delivery was flighted to invite exactly the attack Vlasic provided. The set piece had wounded Croatia earlier through Ghana; now they used the same route to reclaim the initiative and the lead.

From there Croatia saw the game out with the streetwise assurance that has become their hallmark. Ghana pushed but could not muster a second equaliser, and the final whistle confirmed a 2-1 win that felt both deserved and hard-won. It was a result forged in the cauldron of the closing stages, where nerve and know-how so often prove decisive.

What comes next

Three points from an opening fixture are worth their weight in gold in a World Cup group, and Croatia have banked theirs while showing they can withstand a scare. Group L now bends in their favour, giving them room to breathe and a platform from which to control their own progress. The manner of the victory, snatched late, may prove as valuable to their belief as the points themselves.

For Ghana there is frustration laced with encouragement. To go toe to toe with a side of Croatia's reputation, to equalise and threaten more, points to a team with the tools to trouble anyone in this group. The margins were cruel, decided by a single set piece, but the performance offered ample reason to believe their campaign is far from over.

Both sides will pore over the same ten-minute passage that shaped the afternoon, one drawing comfort, the other lessons. Croatia march on with momentum and a growing conviction. Ghana regroup knowing that another delivery defended, another header cleared, and the story could have read very differently.