Monday, December 5, 2022 – 11:14 PM
Doha, December 5, WAM/ The Croatian national football team qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup by defeating its Japanese counterpart 3-1 on penalties, following they tied 1-1 in the regular and extra time of their match today, Monday, in the second round (round of 16) of the tournament.
The Croatian national team will meet in the quarter-finals with the winner of the confrontation between Brazil and South Korea, who also meet today in the second round of the tournament.
The Croatian team, which won second place in the 2018 World Cup, continued its progress in the tournament and prevented the Japanese team from achieving the dream of qualifying for the quarter-finals for the first time in the history of its participation in the World Cup.
The Croatian team had the most possession of the ball and the best attack in the first half hour of the match, but it did not take advantage of the opportunities it had.
On the other hand, the Japanese national team intensified its activity and attempts in the final minutes of the half, and this resulted in the lead goal scored by Daisen Maeda in the 43rd minute, to end the first half in favor of the Japanese team.
With the start of the second half, the two teams exchanged offensive attempts until Ivan Perisic scored the equalizing goal for the Croatian national team in the 55th minute.
The goal is Perisic’s first in the current tournament, but it is his sixth in the World Cup tournaments, equaling this record for the number of goals scored by any player for the Croatian national team in the World Cup, a number that was registered in the name of former top scorer Davor Suker; Who scored 6 goals for the team in the 1998 and 2002 editions.
Perisic also became the historical top scorer for the Croatian national team in major tournaments (the World Cup and the European Nations Cup), with 10 goals, noting that he is now playing his third edition in the world championship.
The Japanese national team intensified its attempts in the following minutes, to no avail, so that the performance returned to a record between the two teams until the end of the regular time of the meeting, with a 1-1 draw, so the two teams resorted to extra time, which ended with the same result, so that the two teams decided the penalty shootout, which decided the confrontation in favor of the Croatian team.
Ahmed Al-Boutli / Ahmed Zahran
