FIFA 2022: Croatia beat Japan 3-1 in penalty shootout to reach quarter-finals for the second time in a row
In the pre-quarterfinal match, Croatia defeated Japan 3–1 in a penalty shootout to be knocked out. With this win, Croatia has reached the quarter-finals.
Muskan 
The fifth pre-quarterfinal match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 being played in Qatar was played between Croatia and Japan. The match went to a penalty shootout and Croatia beat Japan 3–1 in a thrilling match. This is the first time that Croatia has lost a match after reaching extra time. In the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Croatia won three of their knockout stage matches after reaching extra time.
The first half saw a close fight between the two teams. The Croatian team made several attempts but could not score a goal. But just before half-time, Japan's Daizen Maeda scored in the 43rd minute to give his team a 1-0 lead over Croatia. On the short corner awarded to Japan, Done passed to Yoshida. Yoshida's header found the ball to Maeda who kicked in to give Japan the lead. Japan lost four of their last seven FIFA World Cup matches when it scored the opening goal. Japan has won three of these matches. At the same time, Japan has lost two matches after scoring the opening goal in the last three matches in the World Cup.
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, Croatia equalized. In the 55th minute, Croatia's Ivan Perisic scored a header to make the score 1-1. Perisic scored with a header on Lovren's pass. This is Perisic's overall sixth goal for Croatia in the World Cup. Apart from this, he has also done four assists. That is, he has been a direct contributor to a total of 10 goals in the World Cup. After this, the team could not score any goal and the match ended in a 1-1 draw at the scheduled time.
After this, two more halves of 15-15 minutes each were played. In the first half, Japan tried to create something. But Croatia's strong defence kept them in check. The score remained equal to 1-1 in the first half of extra time. In the second half, Croatia played an attacking game. Croatia sent out their captain and veteran player Luka Modric by substituting them. But even after this, they could not score a single goal and the match ended 1-1. In the penalty shoot-out, Croatia scored the first two goals. But Japan missed both. After this Japan was successful in hitting the third goal. But could not hit the fourth goal. At the same time, Croatia also missed the third penalty and won the fourth penalty marker 3–1.
