Russia 2018: Croatia are through to quarterfinals after penalty shootout

Croatia beat Denmark 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw to take their place in the World Cup quarterfinals on a dramatic night that saw Kasper Schmeichel save a Luka Modric penalty late in extra time before Modric beat him in a shootout.
Both teams had scored their goals in an astonishing first four minutes at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, setting a new tournament record by all of seven seconds.

Denmark took the lead with only a minute on the clock, Jonas Knudsen's long throw causing havoc and Mathias Jorgensen's scuffed shot only helped in off the post by keeper Danijel Subasic.

But three minutes later Croatia were level, a neat build-up on the right resulting in an Andre Rebic cross that was half-cleared and rebounded to Mario Mandzukic, who steered it beyond Schmeichel.

In three minutes of added time, Rakitic thumped a drive wide from the edge of the box, Braithwaite having time to send a strike of his own wide before the referee's whistle confirmed extra time.

Knudsen was still causing problems with his long throws, two more of which led to scrambles in the Croatia area before the defender smashed a low cross straight at Lovren.

Denmark introduced the pace of Pione Sisto in place of Braithwaite as the second period of the extra 30 minutes began, and he whipped an effort past the far post soon afterwards.

With seven minutes of extra time to go, Modric had the chance to win it when, after his through ball, Rebic was brought down by Jorgensen after rounding Schmeichel to give Croatia a penalty.

The Real Madrid man stepped up -- but Schmeichel guessed the right way to not only save but also hold the spot-kick to take the game into a shootout.

Denmark went first, Christian Eriksen's kick tipped superbly onto the post by Subasic -- but Schmeichel then saved from Badelj to keep things level. Kjaer blasted home for the Danes before Kramaric kept his cool to beat Schmeichel from the spot.

Krohn-Dehli put Denmark 2-1 up -- and then Modric stepped up again and this time fired the ball past Schmeichel, who was close to stopping it before Schone's unconvincing kick was saved by Subasic to give Croatia the advantage.

Schmeichel guessed right to thwart Pivaric with a diving stop, Jorgensen's penalty down the middle blocked after he had failed to fool the keeper with a stop-start runup.

That left Croatia on the brink of winning it -- and Rakitic obliged, rolling his penalty into the corner to spark huge celebrations.