FIFA World Cup 2018: Penalties doom the hosts, Croatia in semis
What a climx. The hosts Russia were so close yet far far away from making their debut in the semi finals of a World Cup. Penalties proved their doom. Croatia won 4-3 to become the fourth and last European team to advance to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2018 on Saturday.
The penalty shoot out, at the end of extended 120 minutes of play with injury time left hundreds of thousands of home team fans in tears. Croatians, however, had every reason to rejoice and celebrate when Ivan Rakitic beat Akinfeed in the Russian goal for the decisive spot kick as D.Kuzyayev had put the teams at 3-3 with his conversion.
The Russians were hoping to become the sixth host city after Italy (1990_, France (1998), South Korea (2002), Germany (2006) and Brazil (2014). But it was not to be. The luck sided with the Croatians.
At one stage, it looked Croatia would sustain the 2-1 lead it has taken in the 10th minute of extra time till the finish. Domagoj Vida was the scorer. Fourteen minutes later, Brazilian born Mario Fernandes brought cheers to the face of the Russian fans with a brilliant goal.
Denis Cheryshev had earlier in the game given the Russians 1-0 lead with a goal that surprised the Croatian goalkeeper Subasic. But the lead was short-lived. Within eight minutes, Croatia retaliated. Andraj Kramaric produced a gem of goal to restore parity.
Since the teams failed to resolve the 1-1 deadlock, the game was extended by 30 minutes. Though both Croatia and Russia scored in the extra time, the tie could not be resolved. Tie breaker rule was enforced. And Croatia had luck to beat the hosts 4-3 to advance to the semi finals.
Croatia thus joined England, France and Belgium to complete the semi-final line up. Croatia will now play England and France will take on Belgium in all European semi-finals,
