​ World Cup Prediction: Can the last runner-up Croatia and Japan reproduce the miracle and reach the quarterfinals?

After confirming that four teams have advanced to the quarter-finals, the Qatar World Cup round of 16 will resume at 11 o'clock tonight. Japan , one of the dark horses of this year, will play against Croatia, the runner-up of the last World Cup in 2018. Who will win in the situation of disparity in strength?

In this World Cup group stage, Japan was arranged to face the "death group" of Germany and Spain, two strong teams. It seemed hopeless to advance, but they defeated Germany and Spain with amazing performance! However, the Japanese team has never reached the round of 16 in World Cup history, and this is the fourth time they have advanced to the round of 16. It is quite exciting to see whether today's battle can once again show a miracle and break history and enter the top 8.

As for Croatia , it has never been defeated in the round of 16 in the history of the World Cup, and has been unbeaten in 9 of the last 10 World Cup matches. Tough opponent.

According to the records of the two teams, Japan and Croatia both drew 0-0 in the World Cup 2 games, and these 2 games were also the only time that the Croatian team played against the Asian national team in the World Cup.

Croatia: Unsatisfactory performance in group stage

Although Croatia won after entering the top 16 twice in 1998 and 2018, and won the runner-up in the last session. However, the Croatian team drew 0-0 against Morocco in the first match of the World Cup group stage, which made people see that Croatia, like Belgium, is facing the end of the golden generation.

Although Croatia beat Canada 4-1 after that, their performance was not good against Belgium, which also performed poorly. Even in the game, Croatia was probably in a fluke situation and finally tied 0-0. name qualifying.

Japan: The explosive power of the amazing reversal in the group stage should not be underestimated

The Japanese team defeated the popular German team and Spain team 2-1 in the first and final games of the group stop, which brought a big surprise to the World Cup. The opponent can still win.

But the strange thing is that in the group stage, Japan lost to Costa Rica, which was defeated by both Germany and Spain.

It is worth noting that after the Japanese team was at a clear disadvantage in the first half of the two games against strong opponents, the team achieved a reversal of the situation through the change of roles and tactics on the field. The strength of the rebound should not be underestimated.

If the Japanese team can rewrite history and reach the top eight, they will become the third Asian country to reach the top eight of the World Cup after North Korea in 1966 and South Korea in 2002.

World Cup Prediction: Japan Comeback Against Croatia

Although in terms of strength, Croatia is far superior to Japan in terms of possession, scrimmage, and Japan's lack of veterans. However, the disparity in the data is no longer useful after Germany and Spain lost to Japan, because Japan has proved in two group matches that they can score a total of 4 goals with inefficient ball possession to win.

As for Croatia's golden generation, which has rich experience in international competitions and reaching the World Cup finals, its defensive ability absolutely beats Japan. This is a difficulty that Japan cannot ignore and needs to overcome.

However, Croatia's offensive level is showing signs of decline, because they failed to score in 2 games in the group stage, and the Japanese team may be able to find loopholes to create opportunities from here.

With Croatia's performance regressing, it is believed that Japan will be able to score a goal 2-1 or 1-0 with a quick and amazing reversal offensive, defeating Croatia by a narrow margin.