Livakovic reminisces about Subasic heroics after shoot-out triumph

Croatia once again did what they do best at the World Cup which is winning games in penalty shoot-outs as they beat Japan 3-1 on penalties with goalkeeper Livakovic the hero as he saved 3 Japan penalties.

This comes after Croatia’s Subasic did the same against Denmark in the 2018 World Cup which has prompted Livakovic to now boast about their goalkeeping prowess by saying:

"It's what we do in Croatia. You could see that four years ago. I continue the tradition of my predecessors and I put it down to the analysis we do of the penalty takers."

"It's important to win, but it's always easier to resolve the game in 90 minutes because penalties are risky,"

added

as he played down his part in Croatia’s success.

"This time the penalties worked well for us. I don't think they were difficult ones to save. We did an analysis prior to this match."

boss Zlatko Dalic was the first to big up Livakovic for his performance, saying:

"We have a fantastic goalkeeper, he was unbeatable. When we started the shoot-out, I was very confident. He was great in training yesterday and I had no doubt he would demonstrate that again today.

"We had made several substitutions and didn't have the likes of [Luka] Modric, [Mateo] Kovacic and Perisic on the field but all our problems were resolved by Livakovic.

"He proved to be like Subasic in Russia, history keeps repeating itself."

Dalic went on to praise his squad’s resilience, saying that:

"This generation is resilient, they don't give up. They reflect the spirit of the Croatian people. We have been through so much pain that the Croatian national team is now a source of pride.

"We had a great generation in 2018, but we now have 18 new players and I told them that this is their chance to make history."

But Livakovic admiration didn’t stop there as Japan coach Moriyasu piled on the praises by saying:

"Their goalkeeper was great and the Japanese players that took the penalties were very courageous.

"We obviously wanted to win, but it does not negate the efforts of the players. I think Japanese football can continue to grow.

"We cannot do everything at once, we cannot become superheroes in one go, we need to improve little by little, but Japan is reaching a level where we can play on the world stage."

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