Japan 0-0 Croatia

It was a story of frustration for Japan and Croatia as they played out a goalless draw in their second match of Group F.

The pivotal moment of the match came in the 22nd minute when Japan's goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi saved Darijo Srna's penalty, although Croatia also counted their lucky stars when Atsushi Yanagisawa missed a good chance to score early in the second half.

The result left Japan at the bottom of Group F with one point and Croatia ahead only on goal difference in third place.

After watching the first half, Soccer Pundit already has a feeling that this match is one of those which seems headed for a goalless outcome, especially after Croatia missed the penalty and the absence of quality strikers in both teams. The second half continued exactly where the first half left off with the actions constrained only to the midfield while there was hardly any meaningful attacks launched by both teams.

Right now, both teams are staring at elimination, even though mathematically, it is still possible to qualify. However, with both their key players (Japan's captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto and Croatia's Robert Kovac collecting their second yellow cards of the tournament) out for the last match, that doesn't seem very likely and their coaches will have an immense job ahead of them to perform the miracle.