The World Cup’s surprise package Japan face Croatia in the round of 16 on Monday afternoon.
Japan’s opening-game victory over Germany was dubbed “the Miracle of Doha” but Hajime Moriyasu’s second-half specialists repeated the trick against Spain in their final match, finishing top of this year’s so-called ‘Group of Death’ despite losing to Costa Rica.
Croatia’s first-round qualification was far more measured. A routine triumph over Canada was sandwiched between a pair of goalless draws against Morocco and Belgium for 2018’s runners-up.
Here’s everything you need to know about the knockout tie between this pair.
Japan vs Croatia H2H Results (All Time)
Current Form (Last Five Games)
Japan team news
Hiroki Sakai and Takehiro Tomiyasu have both been struggling with hamstring problems but the pair made Japan’s bench against Spain on Thursday. Tomiyasu came on as a second-half substitute and may be drafted in from the start after centre-back Ko Itakura collected a suspension-inducing second yellow card.
Three of Japan’s four goals this winter have come from substitutes, so who Moriyasu leaves on the bench may be as important as those that start.
Japan Starting 11 (3-4-3): Gonda; Tomiyasu, Yoshida, H Ito; J Ito, Endo, Tanaka, Nagatomo; Doan, Asano, Kamada.
Bench: Kawashima, Schmidt, Taniguchi, Morita, Shibasaki, Minamino, Maeda, Soma, Kubo, Machino, Ueda, Mitoma, Sakai, Yamane.
Croatia team news
Zlatko Dalic has employed minimal rotation throughout the tournament. With a clean bill of health for his entire squad, the coach has the luxury of sticking with his trusted starters once again.
Croatia Starting 11 (4-3-3): Livakovic; Juranovic, Lovren, Gvardiol, Sosa; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Kramaric, Livaja, Perisic.
Bench: Grbic, Ivusic, Erlic, Sutalo, Vida, Barisic, Stanisic, Jakic, Majer, Pasalic, Sucic, Vlasic, Orsic, Budimir, Petkovic.
Croatia to score first & Japan to win – Japan have conceded first in all three of their 2022 World Cup matches but have come back to win two of those, winning 2-1 against Germany and Spain.
Croatia to be winning at half-time and Japan to win at full-time is currently 33/1*
Japan to score 2+ goals and win – All nine of Japan’s wins in all competitions in 2022 have seen them score 2+ goals, including both victories at the World Cup.
Clean sheet – Croatia have kept a clean sheet in five of their last eight matches in all competitions and in two of their three 2022 World Cup matches.
Goalless at half-time – Each of Japan’s last seven…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at 90min EN…