DOHA — Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the World
Cup on Monday with a dramatic 3-1 penalty shoot-out win over Japan after a
tense last-16 clash ended 1–1.
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Mario Pasalic struck the winning penalty to send Croatia
through after Ivan Perisic had pulled Croatia level in the 55th minute of
normal time following Daizen Maeda’s opener for Japan just before the break.
Croatia now face either Brazil or South Korea in the last
eight and continued midfield icon Luka Modric’s stay at his fourth and likely
final World Cup.
Japan’s bid to reach the last eight for the first time in
their history came to a crushing end after another display of the sort which
saw off Spain and Germany on their way to topping Group E.
However they could not claim one more big European scalp in
the shape of the 2018 finalists and go home in the second round, as they did
four years ago, after having three of their penalties saved.
Japan could easily have been ahead within three minutes when
Shogo Taniguchi glanced a header wide from point-blank range, and 10 minutes
later Daizen Maeda came close to turning in Junya Ito’s brilliantly placed low
ball from the right flank.
In the meantime, Perisic had let off a shot from a tight
angle which led to a goalmouth scramble, but had Croatia scored they risked the
goal being ruled out for what looked like a clear push on Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Bruno Petkovic then wasted a great opportunity in the 25th
minute, strolling through almost unopposed onto a long through ball only to
dawdle and fail to get a pass off to Andrej Kramaric who was charging into the
box.
Kramaric was then too slow to latch on to Perisic’s
dangerous flick-on and from there Japan took control, and the lead.
Daichi Kamada had already blasted over after a superb
passing move when in the 43rd minute Maeda fired in the opener after Ritsu
Doan’s cross was knocked down by Maya Yoshida.
Japan looked the better team and ready to inflict more
damage but out of the blue Croatia’s most dangerous player Perisic leveled the
scores with a bullet header from Dejan Lovren’s deep cross.
Almost immediately afterward Wataru Endo responded by having
a good strike tipped over the bar by Dominik Livakovic, before Shuichi Gonda
pulled off the save of the match to keep out Modric’s beautifully-struck,
dripping shot.
Modric was replaced nine minutes into the first half of
extra-time in which Japan had the best chance, Kaoru Mitoma’s effort well
tipped away by Livakovic.
With penalties drawing close, one final chance fell to
Modric’s replacement Lovro Majer, who dragged his shot wide, but his team
prevailed in the shoot-out to end the Blue Samurai’s entertaining adventure.
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