At the end of certain football matches, one feels that there has to be a better way to decide a winner than penalty shootout. The Brazil v Croatia quarter-final at the Education City Stadium on Friday night here, was one such match. The Brazilians dominated the entire match even as their flair and movement was highly restricted by a rigid Croatian defensive formation, led by arguably one of the world’s best midfield marshalls, Luka Modric. Brazil lost 2-4 via the shootout. 

Neymar’s brilliant opener

It seemed to be Brazil striker Neymar’s night, when, in the 106th minute he showed just how precious his right ankle is, by brilliantly sidestepping Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic to score his 77th international goal and equal the legendary Pele’s record. The Brazilians even celebrated during the extra-time break as though the match had already been won. However, Modric and his men had other ideas, and in the 117th minute, off their only shot on goal, Bruno Petkovic got the ball into the back off the Brazilian net of a wicked deflection to take the match into the shootout. It was always going to be advantage Livakovic here, given he had excelled under the bar in similar circumstances when the Croatians beat Japan in the Round-of-16 recently, where he had made three saves. Here, he denied Rodrygo, while Marquinhos’s shot came off the bar to send Croatia into the semi-finals.