Probably all of Croatia wants to kiss Dominik Livakovic after his last two World Cup performances. (Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports)
It will be another week before FIFA names the winner of the Golden Glove of the World Cup, but there is little doubt who is considered the favorite.
That would be Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, who has turned the knockout round into personal showcase under pressure.
For the second successive knockout round game, Livakovic made a vital save in the penalty-kick tie-breaker that helped Croatia win the shootout against Brazil, 4-2, after playing to a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes at Education City Stadium in Qatar on Friday.
Add several vital saves during regulation and there is little doubt why the Croatians reached the World Cup semifinals for the second consecutive time. They finished second to France at the 2018 competition in Russia.
With a population barely over four million, the Croatian have become the talk of the World Cup again, especially upending a country that has almost 200 million people.
The Brazilians were eliminated in the quarterfinals for the fourth time in the last five tournaments.
Croatia will meet the winner of the Netherlands-Argentina quarterfinal, which was played later in the day on Friday.
The five-time world champion Brazilians took a 1-0 lead in the 106th off a brilliant Neymar goal, Neymar rounded Livakovic for the score, which tied him with Pele for the all-time Brazilian men’s lead with 77 apiece.
They looked they were headed for another semifinal appearance, but Croatia had other ideas, as Bruno Petkovic connected for the equalizer off a counterattack past goalkeeper Alisson in the 116th minute.
Livakovic was hard pressed to match his three shootout saves against Japan in the Round of 16, but one was good enough.
He denied Rodrygo on Brazil’s first attempt.
Nikola Vlasic, Lovro Majer, Luka Modric and Mislav Orsic converted their attempts for Croatia.
Marquinhos missed Brazil’s final penalty, as his try hitt the left post and bounded away from the net. Neymar was scheduled to take the South Americans’ final attempt.
After the miss, the Brazilians slumped to the ground en masse in stunning disappointment. The Croatians? They partied like it was 2018.