Watch: Croatia stuns Brazil in penalties to advance semifinals

Croatia midfielder Mario Pasalic Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: Croatia stuns Brazil in penalties to advance to World Cup semifinals

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 12/9/22

Croatia is on its way to the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup thanks to a stunning win over Brazil on Friday, winning its second straight knockout match on penalty kicks.

This one was especially wild.

Croatia looked to be finished when Neymar opened the scoring for Brazil in the 106th minute with a historic goal that matched Pele's all-time record for the country. But just when it seemed like that was enough to send Brazil through, Croatia's Bruno Petkovic got the equalizer just minutes before the final whistle in extra time to send the match to penalties.

After Croatia scored on all four of its penalties, the final knockout punch was delivered for Brazil when a shot from Marquinhos hit the post.

OFF THE POST

CROATIA WINS IT pic.twitter.com/N6BsJVP2PI
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) December 9, 2022

This all happened after Croatia knocked out Japan on penalties in its Round of 16 match.

In the two knockout rounds Croatia keeper Dominik Livakovic conceded just three goals in the penalty kick shootouts to help his side advance. He has been one of the stars of the World Cup.

Perhaps the most stunning statistic of Croatia's World Cup performance, however, is that it has held the lead for just 46 minutes the entire tournament, all of them coming against Canada. That has still been enough to be one of the final four teams still standing.

During Group Stage play, Croatia played two scoreless draws and defeated Canada 4-1 to advance to the knockout stage.

But it never held the lead in either knockout victory, needing to come-from-behind against both Japan and Brazil to get the respective matches to extra time and penalties.

Not the most traditional way to reach the semifinals. But it has worked for Croatia.

Also a word of advice for its next opponent: Do not let the match get to penalties. It probably will not go well for you.

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