Croatia reach World Cup quarters with shoot-out victory over Japan

Croatia players celebrate with Croatia’s goalkeeper #01 Dominik Livakovic (centre) after they won the Qatar 2022 World Cup round of 16 football match between Japan and Croatia at the Al-Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, south of Doha – AFP

DOHA, AFP: 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.

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 after Dominik Livakovic saved three of Japan’s weak penalties.

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 them top 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.