Croatia dominates the shootout as it ends a dramatic FIFA World Cup run by Japan, which crashes out of the last 16 for the fourth time.
AL WAKRAH, Qatar – Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic saved three spot kicks as Croatia beat Japan, 3-1, in a penalty shootout to reach the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals for the third time after an enthralling 120-minute contest finished deadlocked at 1-1 on Monday, December 5.
The Croatians once again showed their resilience and patience by coming from a goal down to tame a lively Japan team which had beaten Germany and Spain in the group stage. “Every day, for four years, we worked hard to break this barrier but we couldn’t get the result we wanted,” captain Yoshida said.After all their hard work in topping a difficult group and matching the Croatians for 120 minutes, Japan crumbled in the shootout with only Takuma Asano converting his penalty.
Japan showed far more adventure than it had in the first half of its group matches and Shogo Taniguchi, Daichi Kamada, and Maeda all had chances to open the scoring before the latter broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute. That brought Japan out of its shells and Wataru Endo was soon firing in a long-range effort which Livakovic tipped over the bar.
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