World Cup: Marko Livaja took horrendous penalty for Croatia vs Japan | OneFootball

Croatia are through to the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup after defeating a spirited Japan side.

And like they did in Russia four years ago on two separate occasions, Zlatko Dalic’s side secured a knockout stage victory in the most dramatic way possible.

Croatia beat Japan in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw between the two sides, Daizen Maeda and Ivan Perisic the goalscorers on the day.

The game really petered out as a contest in extra-time, which took us to the dreaded shootout.

And it’s safe to say Japan didn’t have the best of times in football’s equivalent of the lottery.

The Asian side – who’ve impressed everyone at the Qatar World Cup by beating Spain and Germany – missed three of their four penalties, Takuma Asano the only man to convert from 12 yards.

Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Maya Yoshida all saw their spot kicks saved by Croatia goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic.

2022 World Cup hub page

But while the Japanese were woeful at best in the shootout, none of the three players above took the worst penalty of the lot.

That accolade belongs to Croatia’s Marko Livaja.

The striker, who plays his club football with Hajduk Split and is pretty prolific for them, took one of the most casual penalties you will see in any form of the game, let alone in a World Cup knockout match.

Livaja strolled up to the ball as if he was having a giggle in training and then nonchalantly fired the ball goalwards with minimal power.

Spoiler alert, it didn’t ripple the back of the net…

Fan reaction to Livaja’s penalty miss

Yeah, that’s just horrendous.

Why do players take the casual route in a shootout? The reward doesn’t outweigh the risk for the most part and you can be left looking a fool if all goes wrong in front of watching eyes around the world.

Thankfully for Livaja, his miss didn’t impact Croatia’s progress, with substitute Mario Pasalic converting the winning penalty.

So, the 2018 finalists are through to another quarter-final where they will most likely play pre-tournament favourites Brazil.

Well, unless South Korea can pull off one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history, which we probably shouldn’t rule out given the drama in Qatar thus far…