One by one, Croatia’s players walked up to the spot that would decide their destiny. Find the net or go home. All four of them found the net with unerring accuracy. Alisson Becker had no chance. When the fourth Brazilian player walked up to take what was already a decisive sudden-death penalty, you could feel the tension, even on the TV screen
.Marquinhos had to score to keep Brazil’s dream alive. What stood between him and the dream, though, was the sizable frame of Dominik Livakovic, the man of the match. He had already thwarted multiple Brazilian attempts in normal time apart from keeping out Rodrygo’s first penalty out. The defender hit a daisy-cutter to the keeper’s right but it struck the foot of the post and rebounded safely to spark scenes of unspeakable joy among the Croatian players.Forget the dancing. Forget the dazzling interchange and movement of the previous match. Forget the recency bias. It was always going to be a struggle, like an appointment with a dentist to remove an errant tooth. It is what Croatia do. They suffer. Their opponents also, by extension, have to suffer. In the five knockout-out matches they have featured at the World Cup since 2018, four have gone to extra-time. Three of those, like the one against Japan a few nights ago, ended in penalties. So, it was no surprise that Croatia’s sixth knockout game since the beginning of the 2018 World Cup also went to extra-time. And penalties. In the shootout, Croatia did what they usually do: beat their opponents.
Brazil, this was another World Cup that has slipped away from them. This time, they had the players to win the whole thing. Heck, when they touched in Qatar, they were favourites not on tradition but because of form and the players they had at their disposal.They had displayed brief glimpses, the crowning glory being the 4-1 win over South Korea. But they wanted South Korea to be the starting point of a glorious sixth triumph. Instead, it will now be a footnote in another failed odyssey. The immediate post mortem points to a recent failing of the Selecao in not playing enough European sides.Now, each of their last five World Cup adventures have been cut short at the hands of elite European opposition. Since they beat Germany in the final of the 2002 World Cup, they have lost five times to as many sides. In 2006, it was France (0-1). In 2010, it was Netherlands (1-2). Germany’s 1-7 in 2014 was followed by Belgium’s 1-2 in 2018. Croatia, finalists four years before, came in with one of the most experienced sides. While they did turn up with Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic — arguably the midfield of the tournament — the squad had grown old. Yet, they triumphed.
Brazil had enough chances to win it in normal time but Livakovic kept coming up trumps. Then Neymar finally broke the deadlock with an insouciant piece of skill. Yet, with four minutes left on the clock, Bruno Petkovic found himself all alone on top of the D and his effort breached Alisson’s defences.
10 minutes later, it was all over. Ice in their veins. Brazil, though, were left mulling.
