Croatia vs Mexico

Date
Mon 23rd June 2014 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

17:00:00 UTC

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League
FIFA World Cup

Season
2014

Round
0

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		vs
	1 No timeline found..		3 No timeline found..

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Description

The two teams had met in three previous matches, including in the 2002 FIFA World Cup group stage, won by Mexico 1–0.

Coming into the final round of matches, Croatia needed to win to guarantee qualification to the knockout stage regardless of the result of Cameroon vs Brazil, while Mexico only needed a draw to do so. The game was goalless for the first 70 minutes, until a Héctor Herrera corner to the back post allowed Rafael Márquez to score from a header, outleaping the Croatian defenders. With Croatia progressing only by way of a win, they were caught out on a break a short time later where Andrés Guardado scored after receiving a pass from Oribe Peralta. Mexico scored their third goal when Márquez flicked on Guardado's corner with substitute Javier Hernández scoring at the back post. Ivan Perišic scored in his second consecutive World Cup match after a neat back pass from Ivan Rakitic to get a consolation goal for Croatia in the closing minutes of the game, before Croatia's Ante Rebic was sent off for a foul on Carlos Peña. Mexico qualified as group runners-up (behind Brazil on goal difference) on virtue of the win, while Croatia were eliminated.

With his goal, Márquez joined Cuauhtémoc Blanco as the only Mexican player to score in three World Cups.