It’s not often that goalkeepers get to stand in the limelight and bask in their successes. Not many matches go all the way to the dreaded penalty shootout, but yesterday offered up two of them and the men between the sticks stepped out of the shadows and onto the newspaper’s front pages.
Here is a look at how keepers fared on written by James Freemantle. First, it was Igor Akinfeev, Russia’s captain, leader and custodian who grabbed our attention. Spain dominated Russia for large portions of their round of 16 clash but the hosts forced the match to extra time using a combination of dogged determination, sheer will to succeed and no shortage of skill.
The keeper also denied legendary outgoing Spanish skipper Iniesta with a brilliant save with just five minutes of the regulation 90 left to play. Akinfeev has spent his entire career in Russia with CSKA Moscow, despite receiving numerous lucrative offers from big European clubs in the past decade and a half. This has endeared him greatly to his fans at both club and international level, and now he’s played a huge role in taking Russia into a quarterfinal meeting with Croatia in Sochi on Saturday. Rewind just 2 weeks and this under-fire Russia side and management team wouldn’t have been given a hope of doing that.
Last night it was the turn of Croatia and Denmark to thrill the global audience in a tense, tight affair at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.
Denmark opened the scoring inside the opening minute with one of the quickest goals in World Cup history, only for Mario Mandzukic to claw Croatia back into it less than two minutes later.
There would be no more goals in regulation time as the sides both opted for caution, acknowledging the magnitude of the moment. Croatia skipper Luka Modrić had the opportunity to end the match with a penalty in the 116th minute but he was denied by the excellent Kasper Schmeichel. What followed in the shootout was even more remarkable.
Croatian keeper Danijel Subašić and his opposite number Schmeichel took turns to brilliantly save penalties before Subašić had the final say in a memorable duel, saving a third and making history in the process by becoming only the 2nd goalkeeper to ever save 3 penalties in a World Cup shootout.
Skipper Luka Modrić and Barcelona star Ivan Rakitić will get most of the fanfare for any successes that Croatia enjoys during this World Cup, but Danijel Subašić stepped up for his country last night, almost single-handedly guiding Croatia into the World Cup quarterfinals. Here’s to the unsung heroes.
Skipper Luka Modrić and Barcelona star Ivan Rakitić will get most of the fanfare for any successes that Croatia enjoys during this World Cup, but Danijel Subašić stepped up for his country last night, almost single-handedly guiding Croatia into the World Cup quarterfinals. Here’s to the unsung heroes.
3 – Danijel Subasic is only the 2nd goalkeeper to save 3 penalties in a shootout of a World Cup game after Ricardo 🇵🇹 v England in 2006. Hero. #CRODEN #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Dg15oHUX0O
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) July 1, 2018