Croatia Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic makes history in FIFA World Cup 2022

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Croatia Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic makes history in FIFA World Cup 2022

Croatia Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic wrote history last night as Croatia defeated Japan in 2022 FIFA World Cup‘s first penalty shootout. Both the teams met at the Quarter-finals last night and the match ended in a draw by the completion of 90 minutes. Japan opened the scoring through Daizen Mazda in the 43rd minute but Japan’s lead did not last long as Ivan Perisic scored the equalizer in the 55th minute.

Croatia have now progressed to the quarter-finals from the Round of 16 in each of their last 3 participations, winning the last two on penalties. In 2018 they defeated Denmark on penalties and this time around they showed Japan the exit door and Croatia are set to face 5-time World Champions Brazil in the Quarter-final.

Croatia’s 1-3 victory on penalties was their second consecutive win on shootouts in the last 16. During 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Croatia would beat Denmark, reaching the finals but lost against the eventual champions France. They look like an improved side as compared to the last edition but can they go on to win the World cup this year is a question yet to be answered.

Meanwhile, Croatia’s hero last night was Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, who saved three 3 crucial penalties against the Blue Samurais. His 3 saves has made him only the 3rd Goalie in the history of the tournament to make three saves in a single World cup shootout. Livakovic joins Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo and fellow countrymen Danijel Subasic in this unique list.

Dominik Livakovic saves 3 penalties
Croatia’s goalkeeper 01 Dominik Livakovic celebrates with teammates after their victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup round of 16 football match between Japan and Croatia at the Al-Janoub Stadium

Dominik Livakovic, who plays for club Dinamo Zagreb is not a household name among football fans around the globe. But his World Cup round of 16 heroics have made him a hero already. Japan were the first to take the penalty kicks with Takumi Minamino stepping up for the first one. Minamino shoots towards the right but Livakovic gave Croatia the perfect start by diving at the right direction and saved the first one.

Nikola Vlasic then converted Croatia’s first penalty into goal to make it 1-0. Livakovic denied another Penalty by Japan with Kaouro Mitoma shooting the ball to the left hand side and Livakovic guessed it right to keep the penalty shootout under Croatia’s command. Marcelo Brozovic scored the following penalty and doubled Croatia’s lead.

Takuma Asano scored Japan’s following penalty to keep the hopes alive. Marko Livaja gave Japan a sigh of relief after missing Croatia’s third penalty kick after the ball struck the left post. However, Dominik Livakovic did not want to keep the Blue Samurai’s hopes alive for reaching the next round after denying Maya Yoshida to make a hat-trick of penalty saves.

Mario Pasalic scored Croatia’s final penalty to make it 3-1 and the Croats progressed the last 8 for the second time in a row. But Croatia cannot be too happy just because they reached the next round. Their attacking front looks highly disappointing as well as out of form at the moment and they will be facing a dangerous Brazilian side in the Quarter finals.

Other than scoring 4 goals at the group stage against minnows Canada, the Croats only scored 1 in the remaining three games. It is indeed a matter of concern for head coach Zlatko Dalic as will look to solve this problem and hope for his strikers to compliment Croatia’s rock solid defense.

Meanwhile Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic’s 3 penalty saves has put him under the radar of tons of appreciation. He denied Japan from winning their second penalty shootout in the history of FIFA World Cup with the first one coming in 2010 against Paraguay. The Blue Samurai’s have been eliminated from all four of their last 16 appearances at the World cup (Drawn 2 Lost 2).

The first time a goalkeeper made three saves in a single shootout was back in 2006 when Portugal’s Ricardo denied Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher from scoring to help Portugal win 3-1. The second instance was 12 years later during 2018’s FIFA World cup when Danijel Subasic stopped 3 shots from Denmark’s Christian Eriksen, Lasse Schone and Nicolai Jorgenson to help Croatia enter the Quarter-finals for the first time since 1998.

Whereas Dominik Livakovic joined them last night and his side will face Brazil up next.

Also Read – 5 reasons why England can dream of World Cup glory despite facing France in the quarter-finals?

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