By Victor Kanayo
Croatia on Friday evening beat Brazil 4-2 in the quarter-final via a penalty shootout after regular and extra time ended 1-1 in the ongoing 2022 World Cup.
Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was the hero as Croatia stunned the Brazilians to book their place in the World Cup semi-final clash.
This time he threw himself to his left to keep out Rodrygo’s opening spot-kick to give his team the psychological advantage.
And when Marquinhos struck his effort against the post, the boys from Brazil collapsed to the deck in shock.
It came after Neymar thought he had fired his team to victory after summoning up his inner Diego Maradona for an outrageous stoppage time breakthrough
It was a solo effort right up there with Maradona’s wonder goal to knock England out of the 1986 World Cup.
Yet Croatia simply refused to accept their fate and levelled with their very first shot on target when sub Bruno Petkovic smashed home from Mislav Orsic’s assist.
And that was all the 2018 finalists needed to pull off the shock of the tournament.
They will now await the winner between Argentina and Netherlands for the semi-final stage.
