Croatia 1-1 Denmark (3-2 on penalties): World Cup highlights and recap

Croatia beat Denmark on penalties in the World Cup round of 16 on Sunday, July 1. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Croatia’s barely outlasted Denmark to set up a quarterfinal clash with hosts Russia on Sunday. Zlatko Dalic’s side didn’t exactly impress, but they are the team to beat on their half of the draw after Spain’s shock exit earlier in the day.

After two goals in the opening four minutes, Croatia and Denmark played over a hundred scoreless minutes before the next goalmouth action of note, a Luka Modric penalty saved by Kasper Schmeichel to effectively send the game to a shootout.

Croatia came into the match big favorites after their impressive group stage, particularly their 3-0 against Argentina, but fell behind in only the first minute, Matthias Jorgensen poking in after Croatia had failed to clear a long throw in.

Denmark, whose success at this tournament has been built on a stingy defense, had the lead they needed to defend, but let Croatia back into the game with some sloppy defending of their own, Mario Mandzukic turning in after Denmark failed to clear.

From there, however, goalmouth action was hard to come by. Denmark did an impressive job stifling Croatia’s midfielder stars, Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic, but struggled creating much going forward.

The result was a match high on intensity and effort but low on quality. That Jonas Knudsen’s long throws were the best source of chances for either team was an indication of the overall shape of the match.

As the match went into extra time, penalties seemed inevitable, until the 114th minute, when Andre Kramaric was brought down seconds before rolling the ball into an empty net. Croatia were awarded the penalty, but Schmeichel was equal to Modric’s effort.

The keepers starred in the shootout, making five saves between them heading into the final kick, which pitted Rakitic against Schmeichel to win it for Croatia. The Barcelona man rolled it cooly into the bottom right corner, sending Schmeichel the wrong way.

Next: The best player on every team at the World Cup

Highlights

https://twitter.com/FOXSoccer/status/1013483501096599553

Croatia will play Russia in the quarterfinals on Saturday, July 7.