{"id":857,"date":"2026-07-12T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:35:57","slug":"portugal-beat-croatia-2-1-to-reach-world-cup-round-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"Portugal Beat Croatia 2\u20131 to Reach World Cup Round of 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Miracle Osiebe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal secured a place in the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Toronto, after defeating Croatia 2\u20131 in a closely contested Round of 32 encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both sides began the match cautiously, with Portugal enjoying more possession while Croatia remained organised defensively and threatened on the counterattack, but despite Portugal&#8217;s dominance in possession, the opening stages produced few clear cut chances as both teams battled for control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both sides began the match cautiously, with Portugal enjoying more possession while Croatia remained organised defensively and threatened on the counterattack, but despite Portugal&#8217;s dominance in possession, the opening stages produced few clear cut chances as both teams battled for control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Croatia broke the deadlock early in the second half when Ivan Peri\u0161i\u0107 found the back of the net in the 53rd minute, giving his side a 1\u20130 advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal responded strongly and equalised in the 68th minute after Cristiano Ronaldo converted a penalty to restore parity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Croatia thought they had forced an equaliser moments later, but the goal was ruled out for offside following a VAR review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>READ ALSO:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=854\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"854\">Number Of Students-Run Enterprises Soars Amid Inclement Economy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Portugal defended resolutely in the closing moments to preserve their lead, and book a place in the Round of 16 after an entertaining contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The victory set up a Round of 16 clash with Spain, ending Croatia&#8217;s World Cup campaign despite a spirited performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Miracle Osiebe Portugal secured a place in the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Toronto, after defeating Croatia 2\u20131 in a closely contested Round of 32 encounter. Both sides began the match cautiously, with Portugal enjoying more possession while Croatia remained organised defensively and threatened on the counterattack, but despite Portugal&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,14],"tags":[221,125,137,222,154],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-trendingnews","tag-crotia","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-portugal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}