Brazil, the World Cup title favorite, has been eliminated by the plucky and experienced Croatians. Brazilians players are looking down at the ground or crying or staring off at nothing in disbelief.
Croatia outlasted Brazil in penalty kicks, 4-2, ending a match short on beauty and long on attrition, to advance to its second consecutive World Cup semifinal. Each team scored in extra time — Neymar, with a magnificent individual effort in the 105th + 1, and Bruno Petkovic equalized in the 116th — but Croatia was far superior in the shootout. Once Marquinhos cracked the left post in the fourth round, the Croatians sprinted toward the goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic, to celebrate an improbable victory. They will face either Argentina or the Netherlands on Tuesday. For Brazil, the nominal tournament favorite, this is the fourth time in the last five World Cups it has crashed out in the quarterfinal round.
One could tell that Neymar’s goal released a ton of pressure for Brazil. His teammates instantly bounced off the bench and raced halfway across the field to celebrate with him.
The Education City Stadium, which is mostly Brazilian fans, has roared to life. It is in favor of the Croatian team .
AL RAYYAN, Qatar — For 45 minutes, then 90, and then 15 more, Brazil tried all the tools in its considerable arsenal: the toe pokes and the back heels, the sweetly bending curlers and the outside-of-the-foot slices. As its frustration mounted, its coach sent on new forwards and his team pivoted to some of soccer’s darker arts: the dives and flops, the feigned outrage and shirt pulls, the arms-out appeals to the referee for justice.
None of it worked. Croatia had brought a vise to a gunfight, and for more than two long hours on Friday it calmly and methodically squeezed the life and the joy out of Brazil. Croatia, opponents should know by now, does not exit the World Cup without a fight.
Still, that fight seemed over near the end of the first extra-time period, when Neymar completed a lightning-speed give and go to score, giving Brazil a deserved, if delayed, lead. But Croatia had a response for that too: a counterattack in the 117th minute, a pass into the middle, a hard shot by Bruno Petkovic deflected in to tie the score.
It was only then that the teams’ World Cup quarterfinal match, scoreless after two halves and no longer so after two periods of extra time, arrived at the place where so many of Croatia’s games wind up now: in a penalty-kick shootout.
And by then even the Brazilians probably could sense the end that was coming.
Four Croatians stepped up and, calmly and one by one, made their penalties. Rodrygo, Brazil’s first taker, had his shot saved, and Marquinhos, its last, hit the post. And just like that, it was over.
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