FIFA World Cup Highlights, Japan vs Croatia and Brazil vs South Korea: Croatia wins the penalty competition

Croatia prevails, wins the game, in a nail-biting penalty competition game. Japan heads home as Croatia goes to the Quarter finals.

Croatia 2-0 Japan

Japan 0-1 Croatia! 

In their two prior World Cup penalty shootouts (against Denmark and Russia in 2018), Croatia has prevailed, whereas Japan has failed to prevail in all of its previous competitive shootouts (vs Paraguay in 2010). 

It’s time for a shootout. But Croatia just missed the chance in the last minute of the game. With the ball just beyond the area, Lovro Majer of Croatia pulls his attempt wide. The quarterfinals are up for grabs, and he misses.

This is the first round of 16 match that is ending in a draw. We're going in extra time now. Interesting fact: Croatia advanced in all three of their World Cup 2018 knockout games that went to extra time, with the exception of the championship match. 

likely for the first time in the entire game,  Here both teams are working really hard. After Croatia equalised, the game's tempo slowed down once more. As things stand, it won't come as a surprise if the 90 minutes of play end with the score tied 1-1 and extra time follows.

A goal for Croatia! Ivan Perisic gave an impressive header. With 10, Perisic now leads all major tournaments from Croatian side, overtaking the legendary Davor Suker.

Goal for Japan! It's the first time Japan has netted the opening goal in this championship. Japan looks all set to send Croatia home

No one is able to touch Junya Ito's excellent low cross from the right side. There, Croatia was exposed. Unlike their games in the group stage, Japan has started out strong here. They have been proactive in this situation, far from being conservative.

The middle is where Croatia excels. They have such a wealth of knowledge there. They have it under control, remain calm, and are patient. You sometimes can't approach them. There is absolutely no panic if they fall behind by one goal, as in the Canada game. They simply wear down opposing teams because of how dominant they are in the middle of the field.

World Cup runners-up in 2018 Croatia enters the match as the slight favourite. But coach Zlatko Dalic is unwilling to underrate the opposition. With a record 19 players playing in European leagues, the current Japan team has been hailed as the Asian giants' most technically advanced World Cup team in history.

There exists a Mario Mandzukic-sized hole in Croatia's offence. Japan will try to capitalise on their team's weakness—the absence of a reliable goal scorer. The only member of Croatia's front line who plays for a Champions League team is Ivan Perisic. Croatia has scored four goals thus far in the competition, but it's important to note that all four came against Canada.

Three previous matches between Croatia and Japan ended with a split victory for each team. Their most recent encounter at the 2006 World Cup concluded in a scoreless draw.

At this World Cup, Japan has already made impressive comebacks in two matches. They topped the group of death, thanks to unexpected victories over Germany and Spain, but a tougher battle is still to come. They need to emulate the spirit of a mediaeval warrior in order to accomplish something they have never done before and advance to the quarterfinals. At the press conference on Sunday, seasoned star Yuto Nagatomo delivered this statement.
 

One of the World Cup's most interesting stories thus far has been Japan. Placed in the same group as Spain and Germany, not only did Japan survive, but also thrive. They defeated these two international football giants by the same margin and in the same way, trailing in the first half before launching an incredible comeback to win 2-1.

Surprisingly, defensive strategies have worked for Croatia. The draw after 90 minutes feels like good value because Croatia would probably be happy to keep Japan scoreless in this match. The 2018 runners-up are unbeaten in their last nine games, having won six and drawn three. Their last defeat came in June when Austria defeated them by 3-0.

In the group stage, Japan defeated Germany and Spain to place second overall in 2018. In Group F, Croatia came in second place to Morocco. The winner will play either Brazil or South Korea in the quarterfinals on Friday 23:00 GST, 00:30 IST (Saturday).

Japan: Gonda, Tomiyasu, Yoshida, Taniguchi, Ito, Morita, Tanaka, Doan, Asana, Maeda, Kamada

Croatia:  Livakovic, Juranovic, Lovren, Gvardiol, Sosa, Modric, Brazovic, Kovacic, Pasalic, Kramaric, Perisic