The stellar showing enjoyed by Croatia star Mateo Kovacic during his country’s latest outing on Sunday has since given rise to an altogether head-turning statistic.
Zlatko Dalic’s troops, of course, were back in action a short time ago.
After stuttering to a goalless stalemate with Morocco on World Cup opening day, the Croats on this occasion faced off with Canada, in the knowledge that a three-point haul was something of a must.
And, when all was said and done, emerge from proceedings triumphant is precisely what the Europeans went on to do.
This came owing to a dominant showing, featuring goals from all of Andrej Kramaric (2), Marko Livaja and Lovro Majer.
Croatia, in turn, have positioned themselves at the top of the Group F table, ahead of the final round of fixtures.
As alluded to above, though, post-match, it is not the names of the country’s goalscorers which have found themselves front and centre online, when it comes to the Croats’ star performer on the night.
This honour, instead, has been reserved for midfielder Mateo Kovacic.
Chelsea star Kovacic, as expected, was afforded his latest starting berth against Canada.
And, amid a brilliant all-round display, the 28-year-old went on to make history, in joining German icon Lothar Matthaus as the only player to rack up five tackles, create four goalscoring opportunities and maintain a passing accuracy of 93% or higher in a single World Cup fixture since all the way back in 1990.
Croatia 4-1 Canada: Match report, player ratings, fan reaction & more
Belgium 0-2 Morocco: Match report, player ratings, fan reaction & more
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