Qatar December 6, 2022: Yugo Nagatomo had talked before this game that it was an opportunity for Japan to show how they could “fight like Samurais” but, in the end, a boxing analogy was probably more appropriate. Like a promising but impressionable young fighter desperate to break new ground, Japan took encouragement from sticking their opponent on the canvas early on but ultimately found themselves ground down over 12 rounds by a wily old stager used to going the distance and with a knack for getting over the line.
Croatia had come from behind on three occasions in the knockout rounds to reach the final of the World Cup four years ago. In the last 16 and quarter-finals, they had needed penalties to edge past Denmark and Russia respectively and then, in the semi-final, they squeezed past England in extra time. In fact, eight of Croatia’s past nine knockout round ties at major tournaments have not been settled in normal time.
So Japan, it is fair to say, were up against a team that have been around the block a few times and, in an anti-climatic penalty shoot-out, the pressure finally got to them. This was Japan’s seventh appearance at a World Cup but it did not prove seventh time lucky, the Samurai Blue falling at the last-16 stage for the fourth time in the past six tournaments. Alas, they could not add Croatia to the scalps of Germany and Spain.
Trailing to Daizen Maeda’s 43rd minute goal, Croatia showed all of their experience and know-how to drag themselves level through Ivan Perisic’s fine header and let Japan punch themselves out and, in Dominik Livakovic, found a natural heir to Danijel Subasic’s crown. Subasic made three shoot-out saves in that victory over Denmark in 2018 and Livakovic repeated the trick here, denying Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Maya Yoshida to become his country’s hero. Zlatko Dalic was unable to call upon Luka Modric, Perisic or Mateo Kovacic, all of whom had been substituted, but Livakovic did most of the heavy lifting and Mario Pasalic made no mistake with the winning spot-kick.
“We had a great goalkeeper today, he was insurmountable and did a great job with the penalties,” Dalic said. “Yesterday we practised penalties in training and he saved several of them so I was very self assured. He instilled that confidence in me and I was sure he would demonstrate it in the shootout. We had a lot of our main penalty takers out but all our fears and dilemma were resolved by Dominik. He proved to be like Subasic in Russia. History keeps repeating itself.”
With the exception of their solitary scorer, all three of Japan’s efforts were pretty lousy but Hajime Moriyasu denied that the pressure had got to his players. “Whether we succumbed to pressure, I don’t think so,” the Japan coach said. “I think the goalkeeper was great.”
Having got out of jail early on when Tottenham’s Perisic pounced on a mistake by Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu, only for the Croatia forward to be denied by a smart save, Japan were excellent in the first half. They switched effortlessly between aggressive pressing, the tone set from the front by Maeda, and swift counter-attacks and fully merited their interval lead. Five menacing crosses into Croatia’s six yard box had yielded nothing until, finally, from a well worked corner routine, Ritsu Doan swung in a devilish ball. Shogo Taniguchi got a faint touch and Yoshida, on the far side, squared for Maeda to sweep home a smart finish.
There was much to admire about Japan: the hard running of Maeda, the pace and trickery of Junya Ito down the right, the industry of Wataru Endo, the craft of Doan – scorer of goals against Spain and Germany – and of course the cool and calm of the regal Daichi Kamada.
Japan have certainly enriched this competition but there never seemed much chance of them being able to maintain that sort of pace and, the longer the game wore on, the better Croatia were able to manage it. The equaliser came at a bad time for Japan and out of nothing really. Dejan Lovren did a passable impression of Trent Alexander-Arnold, his former Liverpool team-mate, with a stupendous cross from deep that was met with a similarly sublime header from Perisic, who had manoeuvred his way between two blue shirts. Croatia are not the prettiest team to watch but they do not go away easily and, once the game entered extra-time and then went to penalties, there only felt like being one winner.
“This generation is resilient, they don’t give up, they are believers and reflect the spirit of the Croatian people,” Dalic said. “We have been through so much pain so the national team is a source of great pride for all Croatians. This is our way of encouraging them and giving them faith in a better tomorrow.”
Match details
Japan (5-4-1): Gonda 6; Ito 7, Tomiyasu 6, Yoshida 7, Taniguchi 6, Nagatomo 6 (Mitoma 64); Doan 7 (Minamino 87), Endo 7, Morita 6 (Tanaka 106), Kamada 7 (Sakai 75); Maeda 7 (Asano 64).
Goals: Maeda (43).
Croatia (4-3-3): Livakovic 8; Juranovic 6, Lovren 7, Gvardiol 7, Barisic 6; Modric 6 (Majer 99), Brozovic 7, Kovacic 6 (Vlasic 99); Kramaric 6 (Pasalic 68), Petkovic 6 (Budimir 62; Livaja 106), Perisic 7 (Orsic 106). Booked: Kovacic, Barisic.
Goals: Perisic (55).
Referee: Ismail Elfath (United States).
Attendance: 42,523.
