Croatia reach World Cup quarters with shoot-out victory over Japan
Croatia reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Monday with a dramatic 3-1 penalty shoot-out win over Japan after a tense last-16 clash ended 1-1.
Mario Pasalic struck the winning penalty to send Croatia through after Ivan Perisic had pulled Croatia level in the 55th minute of normal time following Daizen Maeda's opener for Japan just before the break.
Croatia now faced either Brazil in the last eight and continued midfield icon Luka Modric's stay at his fourth and likely final World Cup after Dominik Livakovic saved three of Japan's weak penalties.
Japan's bid to reach the last eight for the first time in their history came to a crushing end.
Neymar returned from injury to help inspire Brazil to a 4-1 victory over South Korea on Monday as the favourites cruised through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Vinicius Junior opened the scoring inside seven minutes before Neymar added another from the penalty spot to move to 76 goals for his country, leaving him just one away from equalling Pele's all-time record tally.
Richarlison's brilliant goal made it 3-0 and Lucas Paqueta added another before half-time to leave South Korea shell shocked.
Paik Seung-ho pulled one back but by then Brazil were thinking about Friday's quarter-final clash with 2018 runners-up Croatia.
