Coach Tite confirmed that this was his last game ahead of the Brazilian team, which ended up defeated by Croatia on penalties at the World Cup in Qatar. The leader of the selection in recent years says that the whole team is responsible for the failure against the European team this Friday afternoon (9).
“A painful defeat, but at peace with myself. End of cycle,” he said, at a press conference after the game at the Education City stadium in Al Rayyan, near Doha, the country’s capital.
Tite had already said that this World Cup was his last championship for the national team. The coach was seen as one of the favorites to win the dispute for Brazil since 2002, when Luiz Felipe Scolari won his fifth championship.
The gaucho already accumulated defeats in worlds. In 2018, the team was eliminated by Belgium, also in the quarterfinals, in a 2-1 defeat.
He was hired in 2016 to replace Dunga, and won the Copa América in 2019. In 2021, the team also took Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games.
The coach claims that, at the time he was called to train the team, he found the team in an incomplete cycle, but now he had the opportunity to complete a new phase with the team he took to the field in Qatar.
“Now it was a whole process, before it was a recovery process. In the previous cup I see it that way, it was a team formation recovery process. Now, no, now I have a whole sequence”, pointed out the technician.
Tite also explained why he didn’t put Neymar to take the first penalty. “It’s the fifth and decisive penalty. It’s the one with the most pressure, and [precisa] of a player who has greater quality, is better mentally to make it happen.”
The match was marked by the difficulty of the Brazilian team in finishing with assertiveness. Croatia is known for taking its games to extra time and penalties. In 2018, the team went through extra time throughout the knockout stage, until they faced France in the final.
In extra time, the team took the lead, with a goal by Neymar, but Petkovic evened the score. While the Croatians hit all their kicks, striker Rodrygo’s shot stopped in the hands of the goalkeeper and Marquinhos on the crossbar.
The coach was keen to point out that the whole team is responsible for the defeat and that there is no main player who can be blamed.
“Don’t put hero or villain in sport, because there isn’t one,” he said.
Now, Croatia awaits the winner of the match between Argentina and the Netherlands, at 4 pm (Brasília time), at the Lusail stadium.
It is the fifth time since the fifth championship, in 2002, that Brazil has been eliminated by a European team. It was France, Holland, Germany, Belgium and now Croatia.
Goalkeeper Dominik Livaković was named best game. He took one of the penalties that were decisive for the victory of the Croatian team.
At the press conference, he said that the team’s experience is crucial for them to achieve results in extra time. “This is our recipe for success”, he pointed out.
Game heat map
Where did each team focus their plays?
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