Barely anything could separate Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018. They had just won a third consecutive Champions League together at Real Madrid. Modric had then carried Croatia to the World Cup final. Ronaldo, meanwhile, finished the season with 44 club goals. Football’s highest individual honour – the Ballon d’Or – had become a two-man debate. Modric won, before Ronaldo later acknowledged that he deserved it more. Eight years later, there is barely anything left to unite them. They will lead Croatia and Portugal in a Round of 32 tie. Together, they are the oldest outfield players left in the tournament, their combined age stretching to 81. For one of them, in all likelihood, it will also be a final appearance on football’s grandest stage. That is where the symmetry ends. Because while one is bending time to his will, the other has become a victim of it. Tough start Croatia opened the tournament with a bruising 4-2 defeat to England, but Modric has since been at the heart of successive victories over Panama …