It has been a great night as Football fans witnessed two dramatic matches which went down the wire in the first set of quarterfinals. While Croatia kicked Brazil out of the tournament, Argentina advanced to the semifinal by beating the Netherlands in a thriller. Both games went to the penalty shootouts.
In the first game between Croatia and Brazil, the score was 0-0 by the end of 90 minutes. In the extra time, Brazil’s star player Neymar scored a stunner and opened the tally. Everyone thought that Brazil would win. But Croatia’s Bruno Petković stunned everyone by scoring a goal in the 117th minute. As the scores were levelled by 1-1, a penalty shootout had to be done. Thanks to the brilliant goalkeeping of Livaković, Croatia won the penalties by 4-2. Thus, once again Brazil had to exit in the knockout stage.
After this game, there was a stunner between Netherlands and Argentina. Molina scored a goal in the 35th minute and put Argentina in a dominant position. In the 73rd minute, Lionel Messi scored another goal through a penalty and increased the lead to 2-0. Everyone thought that Argentina will win. But the Netherlands came back hard and scored two goals in the next 27 minutes. Thus, the scores levelled by 2-2. In the shootout, Argentina managed to win by 4-3. As a result, it qualified for the semis. Messi’s long-lasting dream of a World Cup win is just two steps away. The semifinal match between Croatia and Argentina will be held on December 14 at 12:30 am IST.