Ante Rebic capitalised on a dreadful error from Willy Caballero to open the scoring in the 53rd minute at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium before Luka Modrić curled in a superb second and Ivan Rakitić rolled in an injury-time third.

Argentina’s destiny is no longer in their own hands with tonight's defeat coming on the back of a 1-1 draw with Iceland in their opening Group D match.

If Iceland beat Nigeria in their second group game tomorrow, they would need only a draw against Croatia in their final match to advance to the knock-out stage.

Argentina will have to beat Nigeria in their final game and hope it is enough to send them through to the next round.

It was a frustrating night for Lionel Messi with Argentina’s star man unable to make an impact.

The game was finely poised, however, until Caballero’s attempted chip over Rebic went badly wrong and allowed the striker to score into an open net eight minutes after the restart.

There was nothing Caballero could do, though, about Croatia’s second as Modrić’s curled shot from range drifted beyond his dive.

Rakitić capped off a glorious night for Croatia by slotting home their third goal in stoppage time.

The Croatians now just need just a point from their last game against Iceland to win Group D.

Earlier in the day, Kylian Mbappé's first World Cup goal was enough to send France place into the last-16 with a 1-0 win against Peru in Group C.

The 19-year-old tapped-in Olivier Giroud's deflected shot in the 34th minute at the Ekaterinburg Arena.

In doing so, he became France's youngest-ever goalscorer at a major tournament, bettering the record of David Trezeguet, who scored against Saudi Arabia as a 20-year-old at the 1998 FIFA World Cup

Defeat for Peru confirms their elimination from the competition having also lost their opening game to Denmark, 1-0.

Midfielder Pedro Aquino went closest to levelling for the South Americans when his stunning strike came back off the crossbar.

Today’s other match in Group C saw another Video Assistant Referee (VAR) penalty decision help Australia to a 1-1 draw with Denmark at the Cosmos Arena in Samara.

Denmark took the lead on seven minutes through Christian Eriksen's superb half volley following Nicolai Jorgensen's lay-off.

VAR then came to the fore with Yussuf Poulsen adjudged to have handled from Mathew Leckie's header.

Mile Jedinak sent Kasper Schmeichel the wrong way for his second goal of the tournament in the 38th minute and the score remained unchanged through to the final whistle.

Denmark manager Age Hareide said VAR is taking the "charm" out of the competition.

"I do believe it was a penalty but the whole issue with VAR is that there are people somewhere in Russia deciding to look at this situation because it looks like a penalty," he was reported as saying by BBC Sport.

"That is okay but there were other situations in the match where they should have stopped it to look at what actually happened but they are not doing that, so who decides?

"Is it the referee on the pitch or someone watching in a dark room somewhere else?

"To me, it was probably correct but it does remove a bit of the charm of football to have such a precise system.

"I don't know how it will work out for football in the long run."

The result means Denmark need just a point in their final Group C match against France to be certain of a place in the knock-out stage.

Australia must win their last match against Peru to stand a chance of qualifying.

Tomorrow's action in Russia is scheduled to include the Group D encounter between Nigeria and Iceland.

That is sandwiched between the Group E matches between Brazil and Costa Rica, and Serbia and Switzerland. 

Serbia lead Group E after beating Costa Rica 1-0 in their first match, while Brazil and Switzerland have one point each following their 1-1 draw.