Croatia maintained their composure to go to the World Cup semifinals but tournament favourites Brazil were eliminated on penalties.
Rodrygo, who was taking his team’s first penalty kick, was stopped by the great Dominik Livakovic, and Marquinhos’ pivotal fourth attempt hit the post. Croatia, who were defeated in the finals four years ago, scored on all four of their penalty kicks.
Croatia’s players ran to celebrate with their goalie as the ball bounced over the woodwork, while Brazil’s players fell to the ground, realising their hopes of winning a sixth championship were over.
After a riveting 90 minutes, Neymar’s thunderous effort to tie Brazil’s “official” men’s goalscoring record gave Tite’s team hope that they had won it in extra time.
Bruno Petkovic, a replacement, had other intentions. He scored Croatia’s first goal of the game in the 116th minute to tie the score and force the tense shootout.
And it was the European team that triumphed once more, having done so in the same way against Japan in the round of 16, to secure a Tuesday semi-final matchup with either the Netherlands or Argentina.
