Japan looking to end World Cup streaks in Croatia tie

Last week, the Samurai Blue were regarded as outsiders to qualify for the knockout stages, a consequence of their surprise defeat to Costa Rica in their second group fixture.

However, an unexpected comeback against Spain, resulting in a 2-1 win, has led to the Asian nation taking their place in a showdown with Croatia at the Al Janoub Stadium.

Japan are no strangers to this stage of the competition, reaching the last 16 on three of their previous six appearances in the competition since 1998.

Nevertheless, on each of those occasions, Japan have failed in their bid to progress through to the quarter-finals, two of which came versus European opposition.

In 2002 when they shared host-nation duties with South Korea, Japan lost out 1-0 to Turkey, while they squandered a two-goal lead against Belgium in 2018 to lose 3-2 through conceding three times in the final quarter.

Their elimination in 2010 was equally as agonising having held Paraguay to a goalless draw across 120 minutes of football before losing 5-3 in a penalty shootout.

As well as failing to enjoy the outcome of each of those matches, Japan possess a poor record when it comes to facing Croatia at the World Cup.

In two previous meetings, Japan have failed to win or score a goal, the first of those meetings coming on their debut appearance in 1998 when they lost by a 1-0 scoreline.

Although they collected a respectable goalless draw in 2006, the stalemate came either side of blowing leads against each of Australia and Brazil, conceding seven times during those matches.

From Croatia's perspective, this is just their third appearance in the last-16 of this tournament, but the Checkered Ones prevailed on penalties in their other two games at this stage.