Dejan Loveren says Croatia has better character, discipline, and dedication than Brazil
Soccer-Croatia ousts favorites Brazil 4-2 on penalties to reach the semi-final
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Dejan Loveren, Croatia and Zenit Saint Petersburg FC defender, says his team’s ability to complete a task and achieve a goal helped them to beat Brazil in one of the Quarterfinals matches played yesterday at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Loveren told Fox sports that discipline, dedication, and good character helped Croatia subdue the five times world cup champions and number one FIFA-ranked nation via penalties (4-3).
“We told ourselves in the last half of the extra time that we should continue to believe that we can do it. Before the penalties, I was calm because I knew that Dominik Livakovic was going to save some penalties”, he said.
The former Liverpool defender praised his teammates for surviving the grueling pressure from their opponents in the energy-sapping encounter.
He added, ” We are really special today. This is our best performance so far in the competition. When we were one goal down, we knew we would come back no matter how difficult it is.”
Loveren believes today’s victory will further boost the team’s confidence against Argentina, Brazil’s arch-rival, in the semi-final, adding that if Brazil could be beaten, there’s nothing in the soccer book that says Argentina can not fall.
Argentina and Croatia have met at the world cup twice before 2018. Croatia beat Argentina 3–0 in the group stage, with Luka Modric scoring a brilliant goal, and in 1998, Argentina beat Croatia 1-0 in the group stage.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final match between Croatia and Argentina is slated for next Tuesday.
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