Including Schalke’s Yoshida awards
Croatia averted an early failure at the 2022 World Cup in a penalty-kick thriller and can hope for a repeat of 2018. The runners-up won their round of 16 on Monday in Al-Wakra 3-1 on penalties against Japan and thus prevented the Blue Samurai from reaching the first quarter-finals. Mario Pasalic converted the decisive penalty for the Croatians, in which goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic also went from point to hero with three saved shots. Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Schalke’s Maya Yoshida all missed.
Livakovic is only the third goalkeeper to do so at a World Cup. Previously, only the Portuguese Ricardo in 2006 against England and his Croatian compatriot Danijel Subasic four years ago against Denmark also saved three penalties in a World Cup match.
At the end of regular time it was 1-1 (0-1) with goals from the Japanese Daizen Maeda (43rd minute) and the Croatian Ivan Perisic (55th). In the round of eight, the Croatians, who were more committed after the first change of sides, will now face either outsiders South Korea or record world champions Brazil on Friday (4:00 p.m.).
Mbappé alone at the top: top scorers for the 2022 World Cup
While Croatia can hope for a third semi-final appearance after 1998 and 2018, the turbulent Japanese tournament for Frankfurt’s Daichi Kamada is over. The fright of favourites, who had defeated Germany and Spain in the preliminary round and also thrown the DFB-Elf out of the tournament, could not make ends meet in front of 42,523 spectators. This time it wasn’t enough for the next coup.
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