The drama continues at the ongoing Russia 2018 world cup, as Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic scores the winner to help his Croatia beats Denmark 3-2 on penalties to advance to the next stage of the competition.This win means Croatia will now meet host country Russia in the quarter final, as they also qualified to the last eight after beating Spain on penalties.
The game between Croatia and Denmark was with all the drama that has greeted the competition so far, as both teams after scoring the fastest goals on both sides in the first half, settled for shootouts after 120-minutes of football which ended in a stalemate.
Croatia’s captain Luka Modric would have settled the contest, after his team was awarded a penalty but failed to convert, as Danish and Leicester city goalkeeper Schmeichel saved it to delay his team’s exit from the competition.
The shootouts saw both Croatia and Denmark goalkeepers engaged in a personal contest, as both saved the first spot kicks for their respective teams, after which the Croatia goalkeeper went on to save two more making it three on the night, with Denmark keeper settling for just two.
Modric who had his spot-kick saved during the game stepped up for the second time and this time, slotted home the spot kick. But it was Rakitic who scored the last spot kick, in a sudden-death kick to put Croatia in the last 8.
The shootouts and the game in general, saw the two goalkeepers saving three penalties, meaning Croatia’s Danijel Subasic is the second keeper in history to save three spot-kicks in world cup shootouts after Ricardo over 12-years ago. Also, this will be the second time two penalties will be played on the same day by two different teams since 1986.