Croatia reach World Cup quarters with shoot-out victory over Japan
Croatia's midfielder Mario Pasalic celebrates with goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic after scoring the winning penalty kick during the Qatar 2022 World Cup round of 16 football match between Japan and Croatia at the Al-Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, Doha on Dec 5, 2022.
Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Monday (Dec 5) 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 Brazil 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
