Brazil’s dreams of a sixth World Cup title ended with a crushing quarter-final defeat on penalties against Croatia, despite Neymar scoring what looked to be a memorable late winner in extra time.
With Brazil 1-0 up in extra time and the match seemingly under control, a naive passage of play saw Croatia grab a shock equalizer. Bruno Petkovic’s deflected shot with four minutes to play took the match to a penalty shootout.
Rodrygo and Marquinhos missed their spot-kicks, while Croatia’s penalties were flawless, sealing Brazil’s exit from a tournament they were favored to win.
Brazil started the match unchanged from their thrilling last-16 win over South Korea, but were thoroughly outnumbered in midfield and struggled to put their stamp on the match.
But the second half was different right from the gate.
Brazil’s domination forced Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livaković into action multiple times, with VAR also correctly denying a possible penalty after an unintentional Josip Juranović handball.
The keeper stopped Neymar from scoring twice, showed similar heroics versus Vini Jr and Paquetá, and even prevented what would have been a Joško Gvardiol own goal, allowing Croatia to survive an almost unrelenting second-half siege from Brazil and make it to extra time.
Brazil had the advantage of arriving with fresher legs, having rested all of its starters in its final group game against Cameroon, and securing its round-of-16 win in the first half in its one-sided match against South Korea.
Croatia, meanwhile, had to suffer until the last minute to eliminate Belgium from the group stage, while it needed extra time and penalties to beat Japan for a place in today’s encounter.
Still, the Europeans created their best chance of the game after 90 minutes, when a completely isolated Petkovic dribbled past multiple Brazilian defenders to find the late-arriving Marcelo Brozovic, who shot over the crossbar.
But Brazil found its much-deserved opener near the end of the first half of extra time, when Neymar initiated two outstanding two-on-one quick passing combinations that put him one-on-one with the keeper, whom he dribbled past to score to finish majestically.
It was his 77th goal for the Brazilian team, tying Pelé’s all-time record.
However, instead of winning the game for Brazil, Croatia kept plugging and scored their equalizer, and arrived confident to the penalty shootout.
Since winning the 2002 World Cup, Brazil has failed at every single knockout game against European sides.
Croatia’s next rival will be decided in the second quarter-final match of the day, between Argentina and the Netherlands. The resulting semi-final will be played next Tuesday in Lusail’s stadium, which will also host the December 18 World Cup final.
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