Croatia has booked a date on 11 July with England in the FIFA World Cup semi-final after edging out hard-fighting hosts Russia on penalties in the match played in Sochi.
The thrilling quarter-final match had ended 1-1 after regulation time. It also ended 2-2 after extra time, leading to the taking of penalties to decide the winner, in the match witnessed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Croatian President Kolinda Grabart-Kitarovic.
The Luka Modric-led Croatia won 4-3 and the team owed a lot of gratitude to their keeper, Danijel Subasic, who made a lot of saves and also saved one of the Russian penalties.
Croatia are only the second team in World Cup history – after Argentina in 1990 – to win two penalty shootouts in the same edition of the tournament.
