DBasia.news – The journey of the Japanese national team as one of the representatives from Asia playing in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup must come to an end. And finally, a team from Europe, a country with a strong football tradition, stopped the Samurai Blues’ journey.
The team is the finalist of the 2018 World Cup Russia, the national team of Croatia. Even though Croatia won, it wasn’t easy for them to beat Japan as the match lasted until extra time and a penalty shoot-out.
Japan succeeded in winning ahead of a goal scored by Daizen Maeda in the 43rd minute and lasted until halftime. However, Croatia showed a strong mentality until they scored an equalizer in the 55th minute from Ivan Perisic’s goal.
After the goal, both teams started to wore down and had difficulty building attacks properly. The match went to a penalty shootout and this was the first penalty shootout in the 2022 World Cup knockout stage.
In the penalty shoot-out, luck was not on Japan’s side as their first two penalty takers Takumi Minamino and Kaoru Mitoma failed to score, especially Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic also brushed off the two penalties.
Japan’s third kicker Takuma Asano scored a goal, but when Maya Yoshida became Japan’s fourth kicker, Livakovic continued to swiftly brush aside the incoming penalty. Croatia won 3-1 and advanced to the quarter-finals and challenged Brazil.
No doubt Dominik Livakovic immediately rose to the surface and became famous because of his three penalty saves. Livakovic became the third goalkeeper to make three saves in a World Cup shootout, after Ricardo (Portugal) in 2006 against England and Danijel Subasic (Croatia) against Denmark in 2018.
“This is what we did in Croatia. You could see it four years ago. I continued the tradition of my predecessor (Subasic),” said Livakovic after the game ended.
“He proved to be like Subasic in Russia, history repeats itself,” added Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic.
Here are some interesting facts you need to know about the 27-year-old Croatian goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic:
1. Club and National Team career
Born in Zadar, Croatia, on January 9, 1995, Dominik Livakovic played for the Zadar academy before moving to Zagreb club Nogotmeni. Livakovic was promoted in 2012, played for three years, then moved to Croatian club: Dinamo Zagreb.
Livakovic was loaned to Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb II in mid-2015-2016, before returning to Zagreb and becoming the main goalkeeper there. Livakovic started defending the Croatian national team since 2017 and received his first call-up in May 2016.
His debut came in 2017 in the China Cup against Chile and Croatia lost in a penalty shootout. Livakovic was with the Croatian squad when they reached the 2018 World Cup final but has yet to play. Slowly, with Lovre Kalinic’s performance declining, Livakovic became Croatia’s top choice and so far has 37 caps.
2. Personal life
Livakovic was born in a highly educated family. His father, Zdravko Livakovic, is a construction engineer and former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure during the Bozidar Kalmeta government.
Livakovic’s paternal grandparents were radiologist and English teacher, while his mother Manuela Skoblar is the first cousin of Josib Skoblar, a former Yugoslav national team player.
In June 2022 Livakovic married his longtime girlfriend, Helena Matic, at Zadar Church. Livakovic also idolizes three goalkeepers, namely David De Gea, Iker Casillas and Danijel Subasic.
3. Penalty Specialist
As quoted from Sportsstar, saving a penalty is nothing new for Livakovic who has made 14 penalty saves in his career, one of which came against Feyenoord Rotterdam in the 2020 Europa League.
In the same year, Livakovic saved a penalty from CFR Cluj player, Ciprian Deac, in the Champions League Qualification. The game went into extra time and ended 2-2. Then in the penalty shootout Livakovic brushed aside Catalin Golofca’s penalty, Zagreb won 6-5 and advanced to round three. So, brushing off a penalty is nothing new for Livakovic.