Croatia entered the match in the 1/8 round with a proactive attack Japan chose a counter-attacking style of play, so coach Dalic’s team dominated possession. Croatia found early scoring opportunities but Japan did not just defend when they had the ball Accelerating quickly, they also found their own opportunities.
After a long period of being on the back foot, Japan gradually pushed the team up to press the opponent in the late part of the first half. The team’s pressure The rising sun’s ball was effective with Maeda’s opening goal in the 43rd minute.
Being behind forced Croatia to rise in the second half, this team made many high balls and They found the equalizer in the 57th minute thanks to Perisic. After scoring the equalizer, Croatia outperformed Japan, but unfortunately the match did not see a third goal.
Draw 1-1 after 90 minutes of official play, the two teams led each other into extra time. Having to play at high intensity for 90 minutes greatly erodes the physical strength of both sides, making them unable to advance the ball at high speed. Furthermore, the two teams played quite cautiously during extra time, so the match did not have any more goals.
Having to compete in penalty shootouts does not seem to be what Japan expected. The players of this team showed tension and missed consecutive shots, four people missed three shots. Croatia successfully kicked three out of four penalty kicks, winning 3-1 and winning a ticket to the quarterfinals World Cup 2022 against Brazil.
Overturning the odds ahead World Cup 2022 Japan Ban entered the 1/8 round as the top team in Group E thanks to a 2-1 victory over Spain in the final match of the group stage.
Great victory of “Warriors” “Green Samurai” helped become the third country in World Cup history to come back from two different matches at a tournament they lost in the first half after Brazil in 1938 and West Germany in 1970.
Both the aforementioned teams are in the semi-finals and Japan certainly wouldn’t mind making a third comeback especially as they seek their first appearance in the World Cup quarter-finals . These changes are largely thanks to coach Hajime Moriyasu’s ability to read the game and adjust personnel when all four of Japan’s goals in the group stage came from substitute players.
Japan is not the most perfect version, as evidenced by the 0-1 loss to Costa Rica in the second match after defeating Defeated Germany 2-1 in the opening match. However, now they can dream of advancing to the all-Asian quarterfinals with South Korea.
To achieve that achievement, in addition to Japan’s victory, neighboring Korea must also created a real earthquake in the 1/8 round because their opponent was Brazil, a five-time World Cup champion. This possibility is quite small but not impossible.
2018 runner-up Croatia played unconvincingly, but a goalless draw against Belgium in the final round was enough to help them advance to second place. Group F with an unbeaten record (win 1 draw 2).
Coach Zlatko Dalic admitted his team was “lucky” against Belgium when they showed a gentle performance. Especially in the first half when for the second time in this year’s tournament neither side hit the target.
This is Croatia’s second goalless draw at the 2022 World Cup. Previously, they drew with Morocco and won 4-1 against Canada. In the past, Croatia only drew 2 out of 13 matches when participating in the World Cup. The fact that Croatia only conceded one goal in this year’s group stage shows that they have a solid defense and that Dalic is building the team’s playing style with defense as the top priority.
In both previous trips to the group stage, Croatia reached at least the semi-finals. There is often a lot of drama on the way to the latter stages for the Croatian team. In terms of warrior spirit, Croatia is not inferior to Japan. Their last four World Cup knockout matches all took place in extra time and there were three matches in which they were behind before winning. won.
In the past, the two teams met twice. Croatia won 1-0 against Japan at the 1998 World Cup and the two teams drew goalless at the 2006 World Cup. The runner-up position on the FIFA rankings is 10 places different, but it is clear that Croatia’s performance at this year’s World Cup is not as good as four years ago when signs of age were clearly visible on the feet of veterans and key players. key in the team.
Therefore, Croatia is not rated much higher than Japan. This is an evenly matched match and there may be no goals in the 90 minutes of official play, both teams will have to take each other to extra time or a penalty shootout to find the next team.
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Photo: Getty
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