Who is Dominik Livakovic, Croatia’s hero on penalties against Japan

Croatia has a new hero. He is your goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. By his hand, the Croatian team has eliminated Japan and is in the quarterfinals. He saved three shots on penalties and his name has already gone around the world.

Livakovic He parried three of the four shots (it was not necessary to reach five executions) that the Japanese kicked him in the definition of the twelve steps. He presented the rods to Minamino, Mitoma and Yoshida. In the first he threw himself to his left and in the other two to the right. He alone failed to stop Asano’s finisher.

With the three saves, Livakovic entered the history of the World Cup. He is the third goalkeeper to contain three shots in the penalty shootout. He thus equaled what Portuguese Ricardo did against England in Germany 2006 and his compatriot Danijel Subašić, author of three definition saves against Denmark in Russia 2018, also in the round of 16.

Livakovic was born in Zadar, in the Dalmatia region of today’s Croatia. His football career started at NK Zadar, a club in his hometown. He made his debut there in the 2012-13 season and in four seasons he accumulated 104 games, which allowed him to be signed by a more famous Croatian club, Dinamo Zagreb, with whom he has already won 9 titles, all national: five championships, two Cups and two Croatian Super Cups.

Following the departure of Eduardo Carvalho, Livakovic became that team’s starting goalkeeper, starting in 2016.. In the same year he joined the national team, where he made his debut in a friendly match against Moldova. That year his name was included in the pre-list for the Euro Cup, but in the end he was not called to play.

He will have his revenge two years later, when they take him to the World Cup in Russia, where, despite not participating on the field, he was part of the second place squad in the world.

After that World Cup event, goalkeeper Daniel Subasic withdrew from the Croatian squad and Livakovic became a regular. And at 27 years old, 187cm and 85kg, he can already say he has become a Croatian hero, taking his team to the top eight in the world after being the great figure by saving three penalties in the definition against the sensational Japan.

Al Wakrah, Qatar. Special delivery.