The Croatian national football team qualified for the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar on Monday evening by beating Japan in a penalty shoot-out after the match ended in a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes of play.

Croatia’s goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic became an instant hero after saving three shots from Japanese players in the shoot-out, to make the score 3-1 for Croatia.

This is only the third time in Croatia’s history that the team managed to reach the World Cup quarter-finals, after the 1998 edition in France and 2018 in Russia, where they lost the final to France.

Croatia’s next match will be on Friday, against the winners of the match between Brazil and South Korea, who play later on Monday.