Japan’s dream ended with botched penalties and Croatia progressed to the quarter-finals without doing much

There is always a hero in the penalty shootout. This time he was called Dominik Livakovic: He saved three penalties and gave Croatia a ticket to the quarter-finals which they didn’t do much for. Less than Japan, for sure. But penalties are not a lottery, you have to take them well and the Japanese don’t. Simple as that.

Few teams like Japan had been so satisfied with this World Cup. They beat Germany and Spain, no less, and in the round of 16 they were not far from victory over bottom-placed Croatia to secure their best performance in World Cup history. He failed and remained on the road again.

The growth of Japanese football is already a reality. Since France 98 participates in every World Cup. But it must also be said that he tries to play well. It is an orderly and orderly team that, from a 3-4-3, tries to secure the ball from below to then speed up their attacks from the outside. In defense it becomes a 5-2-3.

Only seven of the 26 players in his squad play in the local league, three of them are owners. He relies on the safety of his goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda and the firmness of the free Maya Yoshida. Up front, whoever goes outside the script to leave the left wing and fly is Daichi Kamada, with good technique. It is clear that individual lights are not left.

But the team runs like few others, is enthusiastic and has worked on set pieces, with variations on each free-kick, in favor of a fact: their average height in the end credits is 1.79. Yoshida is 1.89.

On the other hand, Croatia looked a bit aged team compared to Russia 2018, who lost the final to France. It depends almost exclusively on a great pass from Luka Modric, always intelligent, but already 37 years old. It also depends on whether the striker who gets that nod from the Real Madrid star doesn’t spoil it. In the center the best of the Croatians, with Modric, Brozovic and Kovacicall with experience in Europe’s big clubs, with a proven profession, but in attack they didn’t offer much more than that cross from Lovren which Perisic headed in to make it 1-1.

Japan felt the blow but didn’t turn down the intensity. It wasn’t enough to avoid the first supplement of this World Cup. Y When eight minutes after extra time the Croatian coach decided to eliminate Modric, one could not expect much more from the European squad.

All the electricity, in the match and in the stands, was with the Asians. But they failed to convert that energy into scoring situations. Lovro Majer brought some vitality to Croatia, who finished better physically. It is true that neither team wanted to go to penalties.

But they could not avoid the first definition of the 12 steps in Qatar. Dominik Livakovic, goalkeeper of Dinamo Zagreb, has been tasked with breaking the suspense. He saved the first two penalties and, just in case, also the fourth. It wasn’t entirely fair, but Japan lacked something more and Croatia hasn’t forgiven that.

Al Wakrah, special envoy