Croatia into quarter-finals beating Denmark on penalties

FT ONLINE

Croatia beat Denmark in a dramatic penalty shootout on Sunday to progress to the World Cup quarter-finals.

Mathias Jorgensen gave Denmark the lead after just 58 seconds but Mario Mandzukic levelled for Croatia in the fourth minute and the sides remained locked at 1-1 at the end of extra time. But Croatia won the shootout 3-2 in penalty shoot out.

Danijel Subasic saved three penalties as Croatia knocked out dogged Denmark in a nerve-shredding shootout to set up a World Cup quarter-final tie against hosts Russia.

It came at the end of a largely disappointing tie - and one that had seen Luka Modric spurn a golden chance to snatch a late winner when his penalty shortly before the end of extra-time was superbly saved by Kasper Schmeichel.

The Leicester City goalkeeper also saved two penalties in the shootout at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium but he could not prevent Ivan Rakitic slotting home the decisive 10th kick.

The Croatia players charged towards Rakitic after his decisive strike with the look of a team who knew they had survived an almighty scare against a Danish side that seemed to have the momentum with them moving into the shootout.

It was a match that ended in stunningly dramatic fashion - and started that way as well.

Martin Jorgensen capitalised on the chaos caused by a long throw to fire a weak shot beyond Subasic in the opening minute.

A scuffed clearance and an inadvertent header off Danish midfielder Martin Delaney left Mario Mandzukic with a good chance that he gobbled up, shooting beyond Schmeichel as Croatia soon levelled.

Neither side had previously conceded from open play in Russia - but the prospect of an unexpected glut of goals faded as quickly as the tempo.

It was a lacklustre tie played with front of a largely delighted crowd as the local fans inside the stadium revelled in Russia's earlier shootout victory over Spain.

The second half was particularly dreadful and the match seemed to have an inevitability of penalties from well before the start of extra-time.

An off-colour Modric fluffed his big chance but did convert in the shootout as Croatia stay alive in the competition and remain in the hunt to emulate the side of 1998, which reached the last four in France.

Quick off the mark - the stats

Croatia have qualified for their first World Cup quarter-final since 1998.
Denmark have lost two of their three penalty shootouts at major tournaments, also losing against Spain in the Euro 1984 semi-final (they won the other at Euro 1992 against Netherlands).
This match was only the second in World Cup history to see both teams score inside four minutes, after Argentina v Nigeria in June 2014.
Mathias Jorgensen scored for Denmark after 57 seconds, the fastest goal scored in a World Cup match since Clint Dempsey scored after 29 seconds for USA against Ghana in 2014.
Mario Mandzukic's equaliser for Croatia after three minutes and 40 seconds was Croatia's second fastest World Cup goal, behind only Darijo Srna's strike against Australia in June 2006 (1:56).
Since 1966, only one penalty has been taken later in a World Cup match than Luka Modric's penalty for Croatia (115mins 46secs) - Asamoah Gyan for Ghana against Uruguay in 2010 (121:27), whose penalty hit the crossbar.
Mandzukic scored his third World Cup goal for Croatia (also two goals in 2014), with only Davor Suker (6) scoring more for the Croatians.
Both Croatia and Denmark played their 20th World Cup games in this match, with this the first time for each nation that any of those 20 games has gone to extra-time.
Denmark have conceded three penalties at the 2018 World Cup, the most by a team in a World Cup since Greece in 1994 (also three conceded).
Today is only the second day in which two World Cup games (Spain v Russia, Croatia v Denmark) both went to a penalty shootout - the other was June 21, 1986 (France v Brazil, Mexico v Germany).