Qatar 2022: Croatia sends Brazil out of World Cup on penalties
The dream of Samba boys to win the ongoing FIFA World cup in Qatar has been cut short on Friday after losing their quarter final clash to Croatia by 4-2 on penalties.
Touted as the favourite to win the mundial, the five time winner were sent packing after enduring a resilient Croatian team who stood till the end of the game, albeit underwhelming in statistics.
Brazil were forced to a long ride of tough moments dealing with the defense set up of their opponents who would also have their goalkeeper, Dominic Livakovic to thank for making important saves.
After playing out a goalless draw in the regulation, the encounter was stretched to extra time where both teams eventually scored a goal each.
While Neymar muscled his way up to score a perfect build up play for the Samba Boys in the stroke of the first half of the extra time, the Croatian struck an equalizer four minutes to the end of the game through Petrovic to set up a spot kick affairs.
The Croatians would eventually have their efforts crowned in the shootouts as Rodrygo and Marquinho lost their kicks- the former having his own kept out by Dominic Livakovic and the latter had his efforts hitting off the bar to hand the 2018 World Cup finalists the semi final ticket.
Croatia will now face the winner between Netherlands and Argentina in the semi-final.
