Croatia stunned Brazil 4-2 in Penalty shootout to qualify for semifinal in 2022 FIFA World Cup at Education City Stadium, Qatar. Brazil’s curse of coming up short against European teams in the knockout rounds of the FIFA World Cup continued with a defeat to Croatia on Friday. After a 1-1 draw at the end of extra-time, Brazil lost 2-4 in a penalty shootout to the Croatians.
Neymar Jr. opened the scoring in the 105′ before Bruno Petkovic equalised in the 117′ to take the game into the shootouts.
Since the 2002 World Cup, where Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the final to lift the title for a fifth time, the South Americans have found it hard to overcome European opponents at the World Cup.
Brazil lost to France in the quarterfinals in 2006, then a defeat to the Netherlands in the 2010 quarterfinals, followed by a 7-1 thrashing to Germany in the 2014 semifinals and fell to Belgium in the 2018 quarterfinals.
Neymar scored his 77th career goal for Brazil in his 124th appearance to equal Pele’s all-time goals tally of 77 goals.
In penalty shootout, Vlasic, Majer, Modric and Orsic scored for Croatia. Livakovic saved Rodrygo’s and Marquinhos’ penalty while Casemiro and Pedro scored for Brazil.
Croatia Starting XI: Dominik Livakovic; Josip Juranovic, Dejan Lovren, Josko Gvardiol, Borna Sosa; Luka Modric (capt), Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic; Mario Pasalic, Andrej Kramaric, Ivan Perisic
Brazil Starting XI: Alisson Becker; Eder Militao, Thiago Silva (capt), Marquinhos, Danilo; Lucas Paqueta, Casemiro, Neymar; Raphinha, Richarlison, Vinicius Junior
Picture Courtesy: FIFA Media
