Croatia and Japan meet on Monday in a rarity at the World Cup: a knockout round game without one of the heavy hitters in it.
That’s not to say Croatia and Japan do not have pedigrees: Croatia, after all, made an improbable run to the final in 2018 before losing, 4-2, to France, while Japan has reached the knockout stage for the fourth time.
But in a round of 16 in which the winners so far have been the Netherlands, Argentina, France and England, a game between teams that even now have odds of 40-1 and 80-1 to win the whole tournament, sticks out.