Croatia v Nigeria, 16 June 2018

Kick-off: 9.00pm local Croatia v Nigeria was Match 8 of the FIFA World Cup 2018 Refereeing team: Referee: Sandro Ricci (Brazil) Assistant Referee 1: Emerson de Carvalho (Brazil) Assistant Referee 2: Marcello Van Gasse (Brazil) Fourth Official: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain) Reserve AR: Pau Cebrian Devis (Spain) VAR: Daniele Orsato (Italy) Croatia's opening goals at their last two World Cup finals had now been own goals (Brazil's Marcelo in 2014). Luca Modrić's penalty was the fifth to be taken in the four games played on this day at the World Cup finals. Excluding shoot-outs, there had been only one previous day at the finals when six had been taken (24 June 1998). Nigeria had now lost all of their last seven games at the World Cup finals when they had conceded the first goal.