Croatia 1 (4) – (2) 1 Brazil
Croatia upsets Brazil 4-2 in penalties to advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Croatia was able to hold Brazil to a scoreless draw for 90 minutes which sent the game into overtime. Croatia would concede in the first half of extra time in the 106th minute, thanks to a goal by Neymar.
Croatia responded in the 117th minute with a goal from Bruno Petković. They managed to hold off Brazil for the remaining three minutes and the game went into a penalty shootout.
Croatia was the first to kick and Nikola Vlašić scored, followed by a Brazilian miss from Rodrygo. Both Lovro Majer for Croatia and Casemiro for Brazil converted their shots to keep the score at 2-1 in Croatia’s favor.
The same happened in the third round of penalties as Luka Modrić for Croatia and Pedro for Brazil converted and the score became 3-2. After this Mislav Oršić scored for Croatia which meant that Brazil had to make their shot or Croatia would win.
Brazilian defender Marquinhos faked out the keeper but unfortunately hit the post, giving Croatia the win.
Argentina 2 (4) – (3) 2 Netherlands
Argentina defeats the Netherlands 4-3 in penalties to advance to the semi-finals.
La Albiceleste scored right before halftime with a goal from Nahuel Molina in the 35th minute. They would take a 2-0 lead in the 73rd minute after Lionel Messi converted a penalty. At this point, most fans would have thought that the game was over as it was unlikely that the Dutch would find two goals in less than 20 minutes.
Wout Weghorst saved the Dutch for the time being but scored in the 83rd minute and the 101st minute of added time. Usually, 10 minutes of stoppage time is rare and it takes something special for that much time to be added such as an extended injury or a fight. This time it was a fight.
Before the Netherlands had scored and Argentina was still ahead by two goals, Leandro Paredes would commit three bookable offenses. He would commit two back-to-back studs-up slide tackles and then proceeded to clear the ball into the Netherland’s bench, which then resulted in a fight between the two teams. All three of these were yellow card offenses meaning that he should have been ejected from the game. Somehow, he was only given a yellow card.
The game would remain at a 2-2 draw over the course of overtime, sending the game into a penalty shootout.
The Argentines started off in the best possible position as both Messi and Paredes converted their penalties, and the Dutch missed their first two.
Both teams would convert their third penalty and the score stood at 3-1 in favor of Argentina. Enzo Fernández missed his shot, and the Dutch made their remaining two shots. This meant that If Argentina converted their next shot, they would win the game.
Lautaro Martínez stepped up and faked out the Dutch keeper sending him to the right while the ball went into the left-hand side of the goal.
As a result of these two matches, Argentina will face Croatia in the semi-finals on Tuesday, December 13th at 2 pm EST.
Photo: Luka Modrić – Shutterstock – user: Alizada Studios – ID: 1130503940
