Original title: Japan and South Korea were eliminated one after another, and the Asian teams in this World Cup were wiped out
In the early hours of this morning, Beijing time, the World Cup in Qatar ended with two quarter-finals. The Japanese team lost to Croatia on penalties (regular time 1:1, penalty kick 1:3) and missed the quarter-finals; the South Korean team, which had trailed 0:4 in the first half, lost to five-star Brazil 1:4 in the end To be eliminated. So far, all six AFC teams in this cup have been eliminated.
In the match between Japan and Croatia, Qatar’s first extra time and first penalty of the World Cup were born. Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic successively saved shots from Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Misaki and Maya Yoshida in the penalty shoot-out to push the team forward.
Although they failed to reach their goal of reaching the quarter-finals, facing the runners-up of the last cup, Croatia, the Japanese team did not lose their breath and performed very well. They were again first to score, with Maeda breaking the deadlock with a corner before the break.
Having learned their lessons from previous defeats to Germany and Spain, facing the Japanese side, Croatia made targeted deployments, including reinforcing crosses from wide and using their height advantage to pick up points. So they equalized in the 56th minute, with Lovren’s precise diagonal from outside the box and Perisic’s header.
In the following games the two teams met in attack and defense, but the score was not rewritten. After 90 minutes, the score was 1:1 and the two teams entered extra time.
Modric, Kovacic, Perisic and other well-known players were all replaced in extra time. The Croatian team hoped to maintain vitality on the pitch by adjusting their formation, but the Japanese team’s tight defense did not leave room for too many attacks on the opponent. With one draw, the two teams went into a penalty shootout.
The Japanese team took the lead in free throws, and Takumi Minano was the first to go to the twelve-yard mark. As the representative of the team’s European striker, Takumi Minano, who played for Monaco in Ligue 1, came on as a substitute in the 87th minute of the match, and taking a penalty kick must be one of his duties.
But under heavy pressure, the quality of Takumi Minano’s shot was not high and Livakovic quickly fell to the ground to complete the save.
Kaoru Misaki took the second penalty for the Japanese team, Livakovic again judged the direction and saved the ball. After Vlasic and Brozovic made regular free throws, the Croatian team had a two-goal lead.
In the third round, Takuma Asano scored the ball. Livaya’s shot hit the post and jumped out, and the Japanese team saw a small upset chance.
However, in the fourth round, Maya Yoshida’s penalty was again blocked by Livakovic. With Pasalic’s goal in the night, Croatia eliminated Japan 3:1 on penalties.
Livakovic is 28 this year and currently plays for Croatian national giants Dinamo Zagreb. In these shootouts, he stood on the goal line four times and saved three penalties.
Thanks to Livakovic’s performance, the Croatian team continued its excellent performance in the penalty shootout: in the last cup, the “Plaid Army” eliminated the Danish team and the Russian team in succession in a penalty shootout, and finally won second place.
In another match, the South Korean team lost 1:4 to Brazil and stopped in the top 16.
Relying on Portugal’s stoppage-time tradition in the last round of the group stage, the South Korean team beat Uruguay with 4 points thanks to the goal lead and advanced to the round of 16 at the siren. However, against the army of Samba today, “Tai Chi Tiger” failed to continue to upset.
Facing the South Korean team, five-star Brazil showed its strength as the favorite to win the championship. Vinicius broke the deadlock early in the 7th minute and scored easily from a late point.
Neymar, who missed two rounds of the group stage through injury, returned to the starting lineup: he scored an 11th-minute penalty to extend Brazil’s lead. Since then, the Brazilian team has enjoyed an exquisite partnership, with Richarlison and Paqueta winning back-to-back cities. By the end of the first half, Samba’s army had taken a 4:0 lead.
Even though the high score fell behind, the South Korean team was not discouraged. They created several chances in the second half, and in the 76th minute, Bai Shenghao scored a wonderful world wave to recover a goal.
The Brazilian team dominated the second half with control, and Vinicius, Neymar and main goalkeeper Alisson were replaced one after the other. So far, all 26 players on Brazil’s roster have played in this World Cup. The score of 4:1 was held until the end and the Samba Army advanced to the quarterfinals as they wished.
With the Japanese and South Korean teams eliminated back-to-back, the AFC teams were all eliminated and none of them made the quarterfinals.
Up to now, there have been six places in the quarterfinals of this World Cup. Besides Croatia and Brazil, it also includes the Netherlands, Argentina, France and England.
The quarter-final matches were produced as follows:
The upper half:
9th 23:00 Croatia vs Brazil
10 03:00 Holland vs Argentina
The bottom half:
03:00 on the 11th England-France
From tonight to tomorrow morning, Beijing time, the last two quarter-finals of this World Cup are about to begin. The specific pairings are:
23:00 Morocco vs Spain
03:00 Portugal vs Switzerland
The winners of the two games will then meet in the quarter-finals at the same time as France and England.
As the top seed in group E, the Spanish side performed well in the group stage. After a 7-0 victory over Costa Rica in the first round, the outside world has high hopes for this young Matador team. But in the next two games, although the Spanish team was still the first to complete the goal, they ultimately did not win, and once they were crushed into third place in the group in live points, and were almost eliminated.
The Morocco team is just the opposite. After drawing Croatia in the first game, Morocco defeated Belgium and Canada one after the other and finally qualified as first place in Group F, and sent home Belgium, runners-up of the last cup.
Ashraf, Ziyech and Mazraoui are the most famous stars of this Moroccan squad, and all three are currently playing for European giants. Facing Spain, who mainly control the ball, teams that are good at quick counter-attacks can often create a lot of threats, and the Morocco team belongs to this category.
In another match, it was not easy for Portugal under Ronaldo to overcome Switzerland. Judging by the formation, the Portuguese, full of big names, are the dominant team. However, in terms of recent competition results, the Swiss team is not only not inferior to its opponents, but also better.
In the group stage, despite the Swiss team losing 0:1 against Brazil, the scene was not bad and the conceded goal also appeared at the end of the game. Therefore, when faced with a strong opponent, the Swiss team has its own set of effective tactics and it depends on how the Portuguese team disrupts the game.
