Croatia, who have won silver and bronze in recent World Cup tournaments, had a tough start with a 2-4 loss to England. Against Panama, a win looked far from certain at first - but in the 54th minute Ante Budimir made it 1-0.
The result means that Croatia has taken its first points in the tournament and that the team can secure further World Cup play with a victory against Ghana on Saturday.
The match was the legendary Luka Modric's 200th for the national team.
He still has a big impact on the matches, and to play 200 international matches - that's a lot, says coach Zlatko Dalić afterwards.
Panama, for their part, is out of the World Cup after two opening losses.
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