Published by
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
By Andrew Gastelum After wins against Germany and Spain, the Samurai Blue face off with the 2018 World Cup runner-up in the last 16. Follow along here. Japan has already taken down World Cup giants in Germany and Spain, but it will have to dispatch the 2018 runner-up in Croatia if it hopes to continue its dream run. Widely written out of a knockout appearance before the tournament, the Samurai Blue stunned the world with massive upsets to win Group E, despite losing to last-place Costa Rica, helping send home Germany in the process. Japan will have plenty of motivation against Croatia as the s…
