Croatia entered the quarter-final by defeating Japan 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out of the ongoing FIFA World Cup held at the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah City, Qatar on Monday.
The match went into an extra time after it ended in a 1-1 draw in the allotted 90 minutes. When both the teams failed to make any decisive goals even during the extra time, the winner was determined through the penalty shoot-out.
In the penalty shoot-out, Takuma ASANO made a goal for Japan while Takumi MINAMINO, Kaoru MITOMA, and Maya Yoshida's strikes failed to score goals.
Croatia's Nikola VLASIC, Marcelo BROZOVIC, and Mario PASALIC scored goals but Marco Livaja failed to make it.
With this, defending runner-up Croatia booked a berth in the quarter-final.
Earlier, Japan made a flying start by taking a lead 1-0 against Croatia in the first half of the match. Japan's Daizen MAEDA scored a goal against the opponent in the 43rd minute.
Croatia leveled the score after Ivan PERISIC made a goal in the 55th minute.
When both teams could not score any decisive goals, the match went into extra time. The match ended in a draw even during the extra time of 20 minutes.
