Brazil’s dreams of winning a sixth World Cup were shattered as they were knocked out on penalties by Croatia. One of the players to miss from the spot was Real Madrid’s Rodrygo. The 21-year-old deserves immense credit for even stepping up to take such an important penalty but ultimately, it was not his day. Marquinhos was the other Brazilian player to miss on the day.
It was a much tighter game between Brazil, who were heavy favourites, and Croatia than anticipated. It took until extra-time for Neymar to score the first goal of the match and it was looking like the Selecao were headed for a berth in the semis. But then, Bruno Petkovic cropped up with a goal in the 117th minute of the game to make it 1-1 and sent it to penalties.
It was a sad ending to a debut World Cup campaign for Rodrygo. These are just the early stages of his career though and there are many more to come for the 21-year-old.
Rodrygo broke his silence after Brazil’s World Cup exit in a Twitter thread made up of seven tweets, in which he described it as the most painful moment of his career but promised to be back much stronger.
Real Madrid star breaks silence after Brazil’s World Cup exit
Brazil’s search for a World Cup continues. The last time they won the tournament was back in 2002. Interestingly, that was the last time that a non-European national lifted the trophy as well.
Coming into this edition, Brazil were viewed by many as the clear favourites though, as they had the most talented squad without doubt. Once again though, it ended in heartbreak for the Selecao and their search continues.
Hopefully, Rodrygo will use this penalty miss as a learning experience and get better moving forward. We win or we learn.