When Davor Suker walked off the pitch, substituted shortly after Cuauhtemoc Blanco had scored the only goal of this Group G match, the fields of St Denis could not have seemed further away.

Four years ago in France, Suker was on his way to claiming the golden boot and helping Croatia take third place.

Yesterday, his best moment came when he attempted to strike a first-time volley at goal from 25 yards and sliced the ball horribly wide.

And, by the end of 90 minutes, his team's prospects of progressing to the second round looked about as hopeful.

For Suker, failure at this year's tournament will not be too hard to bear. He has made his name. But for Croatia's coach Mirko Jozic failure will be less easy to swallow.

His appointment was never universally accepted and, yesterday, his predecessor, Miroslav Blazevic, was sitting scowling in the stands.

The striker and Jozic both came out with the post-match line that "we may have lost the battle, but the war is still to be fought".

Italy are next on Saturday, however, and abject surrender seems the most likely prospect.

Even more worrying are the prospects for the future; six of Croatia's first XI yesterday were over 30 and, of the younger players on the bench, only one, the forward Ivica Olic, is considered by Croatians to be an exciting prospect.

This closely-fought contest was bordering on dull before the 60th minute when a deft back-heel from the lone Mexican striker Jared Borgetti bisected the Croatian defence and found Blanco inside the box.

Never short of tricks, Blanco pulled the ball wide of the defender Boris Zivkovic, who then attempted to make amends with a sliding tackle.

Blanco accepted the invitation and tumbled to the ground. He got up again in time to see Zivkovic sent off and to dispatch the resultant penalty firmly into the net.

Mexico then went on to produce 25 minutes of exhilarating football that bore comparison with any of their more feted Latin American cousins.

Yet, their inspirational coach Javier Aguirre, a committed socialist, would not take any of the praise for the win and insisted his team will be changed "entirely" before the next match.

That is against Ecuador and another three points against the World Cup debutants could see Mexico into the second round before the final fixture is played.

For Croatia, it may be over already.

"Of course it is a psychological blow to lose your first match, said Jozic afterwards. "But it is now up to the players to get over the shock of this defeat and prepare for the next match against Italy."

Jozic admitted afterwards the penalty award was fair, but felt the red card was harsh. "I wouldn't like to question the referee's decision," he said. "But I believe Zivkovic tried to play the ball and not give away the penalty.

"Our distribution and control of the ball was really bad and the midfield was quite disorganised."

Suker blamed the weather conditions. "The temperature and humidity are very difficult," 34-year-old complained. "All the games played at three thirty are very difficult. I think the red card and the penalty decided the game."

"I can, and I will, play better," Prosinecki said.

"Croatia cannot play any worse than we did today, either, and together we must help each other rescue the situation."

"It's never nice to be substituted," he added. "But you have to work harder and come back stronger."

"People always expect too much of us (three)," Suker said.

"We have to live with it . . . I know we are not happy tonight, but hopefully we will start again tomorrow and make everything better.

"We have 23 players in the squad and everyone is trying to do their best . . . we have work to do (before playing group opponents Italy and Ecuador) but we will do it."

SUBSTITUTES

CROATIA Rapaic for Prosinecki (half-time); Stanic for Boksic (67); Saric for Suker (64).

MEXICO Palencia for Blanco (79); Hernandez for Borgetti (68).

RED CARD

Croatia: Zivkovic.

SUBSTITUTES

Croatia: Rapaic for Prosinecki (46 mins); Saric for Suker (64); Stanic for Boksic (67).

Mexico: Hernandez for Borgetti (68); Palencia for Blanco (79).

Croatia: Zivkovic (59)