JAKARTA - Japan has written one story of a phenomenon in the World Cup after beating Germany and Spain, both of which were world champions, but Takuma Asano said his team had not achieved anything.
The Japanese winger scored an amazing winning goal when the Blue Samurai overthrew Germany.
Japan's second surprise step in overthrowing Spain in the final match of the group phase has thrown Japan into the round of 16 as winners of Group E to face Croatia who finished runner-up in Group F.
"Now I feel like it's a great World Cup. But we haven't achieved anything yet, so to be honest, I think everything is just starting from now on," Asano said as quoted by Antara via Reuters.
Attack midfielder Daichi Kamada, who started in all three group stage matches, even thought the fact his team left the "Maut Group" as group winners had allowed the team to beat whoever was the best in this event.
"We managed to win this very difficult group," he said. "We advanced to the next round as group leaders, while Croatia advanced as runners up Of course, they have a lot of good players, and they are a good team."
"But our team is also great, so I think we have a great chance to win," Kamada said.
Croatia said it was surprised by what Japan had done during the group stage, especially after beating Germany and Spain, which made them never underestimate Japan.
Japan opened their group game with a surprising win over four-time world champion Germany before beating Spain's 2010 World Cup champion in the last game.
Despite only controlling 17 percent of the ball distribution against Spain and 26 percent against Germany, Japan was the winner in both matches.
"They have proven that big names are not everything, on the contrary, more important hearts and courage. They deserve it and showed its quality," said Croatian midfielder Lovro Majer.
Croatia, who are runners-up in the 2018 World Cup, may be more favorite to win this match, but Majer said the fact that Japan could overthrow Germany and Spain was a message not to try to underestimate the Blue Samurai.
"If you underestimate people at this time, it will backfire for you," said Majer. "Everyone plays good football. We've seen a lot of surprises in this World Cup."
Croatia itself had the opportunity to continue its good record in the knockout round, namely never losing in the last 16 phase. This can be an asset and at the same time a burden for Croatia, as can be a challenge and obstacle for Japan.
Predictions of the first eleven players
Japan (3-1-3-3): Shuichi Gonda; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Shogo Taniguchi, Maya Yoshida; Junya Ito; Hidemasa Morita, Ao Tanaka, Yuto Nagatomo; Ritsu Doan, Daizen Maeda, Daichi Kamada.
Croatia (4-3-3): Dominik Livakovic; Josip Juranovic, Dejan Lovren, Joska Gvardiol, Borna Sosa; Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic, Luka Modric; Andrej Kramaric, Marko Livaja, IvanPerisic.
Statistics and head to head
Since 1977 Japan has faced Croatia including two World Cup finals meetings. Japan won 4-3 in the first meeting of a friendly. Croatia hit back with a 1-0 win in the 1998 World Cup group stage. Then in the 2006 World Cup group phase the two teams drew 0-0.
Croatia are unbeaten in nine of their last 10 World Cup games. Their only defeat came in the 2018 World Cup final against France when they lost 2-4.
Croatia finished runners-up in Group F after collecting five points from three games.
Japan is the winner of Group E with six points after beating Spain and Germany but surprisingly surrendered to Costa Rica.
Japan has never gone through the last 16 of the World Cup after falling in the last 16 of the 2002, 2010, and 2018 World Cups.
Croatia has never lost in the last 16 I. They beat Romania 1-0 at the 1998 World Cup and won on penalties against Denmark four years ago.
Japan will not be strengthened by center-back Kou Itakura who was banned from playing because he got two yellow cards during the group stage. He is one of three players who has always started in the Japanese squad.
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