It was a long and difficult game for Croatia but ultimately the 2018 World Cup finalists managed to win on penalties against Japan and will play for the second time in a row in the quarter finals against the winner of the match between Brazil and South Korea. Both regular and extra time were not enough with the match ending 1-1 and the game was decided on penalties with Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic saving three penalties ti become the hero of the day. 

The first half started off with Japan immediately showing a great attitude, forcing Croatia to be conservtive with the ball. Though it was Croatia that had the best chance to score the opening goal of the match twice with Bruno Petkovic and Ivan Perisic, but Japan managed to not conced. The game seemed to be pretty emotionless until the first half neared its end and Japan scored the opening goal of the night in Qatar. Daizen Maeda scored after a corner kick and took advantage of some confusion inside the Croatian box. The Japanese striker was quick enough to arrive first on the ball and didn’t miss in front of Dominik Livakovic.

Croatia needed to react in the second half and immediately did with Ivan Perisic, who scored the equalizer with a nice header and became Croatia’s top scorer in the World Cup with 6 goals, along with Davor Šuker. From that moment on, it seemed that Croatia had something more but the 2018 World Cup finalists didn’t push enough and couldn’t score despite having two big chances with Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic again. Regular time ended 1-1, and the game went into extra time for the first time in this edition of the competition. 

The extra time, as is typically the case, was not unforgettable and the teams were more concerned about avoiding conceding the second goal rather than scoring the winner. The Croatian manager Zlatko Dalic decided to replace Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Ivan Perisic before the penalties. However, that was a successful move and Croatia won 3-1 at penalties against Japan thanks to an incredible performance of goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic who saved three penalties. Croatia will play in the quarterfinals against the winner of Brazil and South Korea. 

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