Croatia's midfielder Ivan Perisic celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the Qatar 2022 World Cup round of 16 football match between Japan and Croatia at the Al-Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, south of Doha on December 5, 2022. (Credit : Ozan Kose/AFP)
Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Monday with a dramatic 3-1 penalty shootout win over Japan after a tense Round of 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 will now face either Brazil or South Korea in the last eight.
Japan's bid to reach the last eight for the first time in its 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.
Japan could easily have been ahead within three minutes when Shogo Taniguchi glanced a header wide from point-blank range, and 10 minutes later Daizen Maeda came close to turning in Junya Ito's brilliantly placed low ball from the right flank.
In the meantime, Perisic had let off a shot from a tight angle which led to a goalmouth scramble but had Croatia scored they risked the goal being ruled out for what looked like a clear push on Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Bruno Petkovic then wasted a great opportunity in the 25th minute, strolling through almost unopposed onto a long through ball only to dawdle and fail to get a pass off to Andrej Kramaric who was charging into the box.
Kramaric was then too slow to latch on to Perisic's dangerous flick-on and from there Japan took control, and the lead.
Daichi Kamada had already blasted over after a superb passing move when in the 43rd minute Maeda fired in the opener after Ritsu Doan's cross was knocked down by Maya Yoshida.
Japan looked the better team and ready to inflict more damage but, out of the blue, Croatia's dangerous Perisic leveled the scores with a bullet header from Dejan Lovren's deep cross.
Almost immediately afterward, Wataru Endo responded by having a good strike tipped over the bar by Dominik Livakovic, before Shuichi Gonda pulled off the save of the match to keep out Modric's beautifully struck, dripping shot.
Modric was replaced nine minutes into the first half of extra time in which Japan had the best chance, Kaoru Mitoma's effort well tipped away by Livakovic.
With penalties drawing close, one final chance fell to Modric's replacement Lovro Majer, who dragged his shot wide, but his team prevailed in the shoot-out to end the Blue Samurai's entertaining adventure.