After some scrappy Croatian defending, Daizen Maeda (43) gave Japan the lead in the first half, before Ivan Perisic's (55) powerful header levelled shortly after the restart.
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Croatia advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals after defeating Japan 3-1 on penalties, with three saves from Dominik Livakovic during the shootout, after a 1-1 tie after 120 minutes. It was the first knockout game in Qatar to be extended by half an hour after a largely even 90 minutes, as Japan looked to beat their third consecutive European opponent after shocking wins over Germany and Spain in the group stages. Both goals came on either side of the halftime break. After some scrappy Croatian defending, Daizen Maeda (43) gave Japan the lead in the first half, before Ivan Perisic’s (55) powerful header levelled shortly after the restart. It was perhaps unsurprising that the game went to extra time; seven of Croatia’s last eight knockout games at major tournaments required extra time, with the country most recently losing to Spain in the round of 16 of Euro 2020 last summer.
Again, there was little to choose between the two sides during extra-time, with Kaoru Mitoma and Lovro Majer coming closest for their respective countries, and the teams deserved to be separated by a lottery of penalties. Despite their outstanding performance throughout the tournament, three of Japan’s penalties were poorly taken and easily saved by goalkeeper Livakovic. Croatia only missed one of their four penalty kicks, scoring the other three to advance to the quarter-finals for the third time in a row.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the conclusion of Japan’s fairy tale run in Qatar.
