“Underserved for Croatia, Japan are 10 times the team they are”- Fans react as Croatia reaches 2022 FIFA World Cup quarters after beating Japan on penalties

“Underserved for Croatia, Japan are 10 times the team they are”- Fans react as Croatia reaches 2022 FIFA World Cup quarters after beating Japan on penalties

Croatia after winning the palties against Japan at the FIFA World Cup

After a hard-fought battle ended 1-1 between Croatia and Japan, the Europeans sealed the match with the help of their experienced squad and the technical performance of Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Croatia was expected to be a tough opponent for the Asians but was often dismantled by the Japanese attack.

Japan opened the scoring at the brink of halftime as Daizen Maeda knocked his country ahead from a corner kick. After an optimistic first half, the Asians were unable to hold the opponents and felt short of big-stage performers in their squad. The match went to penalty shootouts and Japan failed to find the net thrice to give Croatia a comfortable pass to the quarter-finals.

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Dominik Livakovic also had a big night at the Al Janoub stadium as he saved three of Japan’s four penalties in the climax of the game. Croatia booked their spot in the quarter-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and wait for either Brazil or South Korea.

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Ivan Perisic opened Croatia’s score after a bullet header that came out of the blue for Japan to equalize. Since that chance, neither side was able to break the stalemate and stretched the game to extra time, and then penalties. Liverpool star Takeshi Minamino stepped forward to take the first penalty of the game but ended up having a disaster as his tame effort was saved by the keeper.

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Twitter reacts to Croatia’s unexpected win over Japan in the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The Japan national team after their loss against Croatia

After beating heavyweights like Germany and Spain in the competition, Japan was seen as a solid competitor against Croatia. Although, the 2018 World Cup finalists didn’t give up and ended up as the better team during the shootouts. As well organized as they might have been, Japan lacked the figures that could step up at the biggest stage of football.

Croatia is all set to face the winner of the round of 16 match between Brazil and South Korea later tonight. See how the Twitter community has reacted to this mouth-watering game at the 2022 FIFA World Cup:

https://twitter.com/SirNewtonCA/status/1599831129644625921

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