Croatia had to come from behind to salvage a 3-2 victory over Montenegro to cap an unbeaten World Cup qualifying campaign.
Zlatko Dalic’s side had already confirmed their place at next year’s World Cup with a 3-1 win over the Faroe Islands on Friday, but they were stunned early on at Stadion Pod Goricom.
Milutin Osmajic stunned Croatia in the third minute with a close-range finish after Duje Caleta-Car’s mistake, before Nikola Krstovic doubled the lead after 17 minutes.
However, Ivan Perisic pulled a goal back from the penalty spot 20 minutes later, but they did not get their second goal until the 72nd minute, with Kristijan Jakic restoring parity.
Nikola Vlasic then secured victory three minutes from time with a thunderous attack, making it seven wins out of eight in qualifying for Croatia.
What a finish: the comeback is complete! #Croatia close the 2026 @FIFAWorldCup qualifying campaign with another win, 3:2 in Montenegro – congratulations! #MNECRO#HrabarBroj | #WCQ | #ShowHeart | #Family | #Fiery pic.twitter.com/mQbNACrTQg
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) November 17, 2025
In the other Group L match, the Czech Republic defeated Gibraltar 6-0, with six different goalscorers hitting the net.
At halftime they were already 5-0 ahead, with David Dooudera, Tomas Chory, Vladimir Coufal, Adam Karabec and Tomas Soucek losing sight of the match.
Robin Hranac then completed the scoring six minutes into the second half, with the Czech Republic now set for the World Cup play-offs after finishing six points behind Croatia.
Data debrief: Croatia makes historic turnaround
A 2-0 lead for Montenegro inside twenty minutes was not expected on Monday, but Croatia eventually overcame the early shock to get the job done.
They won for the first time since early 2010 after trailing by two or more goals in World Cup qualifying.
The Czech Republic, meanwhile, were completely dominant in their match, preventing Gibraltar from conceding a single shot, while scoring 25 goals themselves (worth 4.31 expected goals).
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