Dominik Livakovic the hero again as he saved a Rodrygo penalty in a shootout as Croatia reached back to back FIFA World Cup semi finals for the first time in the country’s history.
The 2018 beaten finalist were tagged the underdog ahead of their meeting with the record winners, who made a statement of intent by thrashing South Korea 4-1 in their round of 16 game.
Croatia, who have their Goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic to thank for their shout-out win over Japan in the last round needed their man between the sticks to be at the top of his game again and deny a star-studded attack as they came knocking.
The Goalkeeper made eleven saves in 120 minutes, only beaten once in the added time of the first extra time by Neymar, who controlled past him before firing into the empty net as Brazil finally break the deadlock in the game.
The goal, which is his 77th for his country, takes Neymar level with Pele as the all-time top scorer for Brazil. Unfortunately for the PSG star, he won’t get to overtake the legend in this competition.
However, Zlatko Dalic’s side would not succumb to defeat and three minutes from the end of the second half of extra time, two substitutes, Mislav Orsic and Bruno Petkovic combined to restore parity for the European.
Orsic came in down the left and sent a low cross into the edge of the box. Petkovic fired a first time shot, which took a wicked deflection off Marquinhos to leave Alisson scrambling but to no avail as the box ended in the back of the net to draw Croatia level.
The game finished 1-1 and went to penalties. After Nicolas Vlasic scored the opening penalty of the shootout, Livakovic denied Brazil’s first taker, Rodrygo and everyone scored until Brazil’s third taker, Marquinhos, who saw his effort come back off the post to end the shootout at 4-2 in favour of Croatia.
Croatia have now won each of their last three penalty shootout in FIFA World Cup finals, a run that started in 2018 against Denmark and now they’ve added Japan and Brazil to the list of their victims.
They await the winner of the second quarter match on Friday between the Netherlands and Argentina to know who they will face in the semi final of the tournament.
Brazil are out again and now have not reach the final of the FIFA World Cup since winning the competition in 2002. A big disappointment for the country, who would have believed this is their year to win again.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
