Dalic, the great teacher and Livakovic his best student to take Croatia to the quarterfinals | CHRONICLE

All eyes – and bets in various gambling houses – were on the 11 “samurais” of Hajime Moriyasu, the coach who with Japan had managed to bring a power like Germany and a favorite like Spain to their knees. However, in front there was another strategist whose name is not associated with success but who already knows what it is like to flirt with him: Zlatko Dalic, the “Grand Master” of that checkered cast from Croatia that has already led him to a final of world Cup and that now he is deluded with a déjà vu.

Of course, the leader of this golden generation of Croatian football is Luka Modric. The best player in Russia 2018, where he was runner-up and scored a goal in the final against France, is the plus of this team, the one who can unlock a game with an assist or definition from PlayStation, but the other role: that of moving the board on the court so that “Lukita” has more chances to checkmate with his game falls to his coach.

That started Dalic during the first 45 minutes against the Japanese. Knowing the speed and power with which the Asians would come out to play, the Balkans opted to first contain and then hit. And it is that the mentality of the Japanese can be of Oliver Atom and “The super champions”, but the physique -in the end- is not that of a manga.

Moriyasu’s men obtained the advantage based on momentum and tenacity, but lost it minutes into the game due to the natural wear and tear they had put on in the first half. In the remaining minutes of additional time, the current world runner-up was closer to victory.

Triumph that the strategist Dalic had projected for the so-called roulette of penalties. And for that definition his chosen star man would not be Modric, nor Kovacic nor Perisic -the first two were changed during the first supplementary to the surprise of the entire football planet-, but a modest Dominik Livakovic, the unknown Dinamo Zagreb goalkeeper and one of the two starters of the Croatian eleventh that still plays in their domestic league.

Zlatko saw what no one else saw; his full confidence in the 27-year-old goalkeeper who is a worthy replacement for Subasic, the other checkered goalkeeper who curiously also blocked three penalties in a definition of the World Cup in Russia, and precisely in the round of 16 instance – it was against Denmark.

Croatia has reached the quarterfinals for the third time, the previous two experiences were as auspicious as they were painful. In France 1998 they reached the semifinals and lost to the host and subsequent monarch, and four years ago, the “Gauls” once again snatched away their illusion but this time in a final. Now in Qatar will come the third and the charm? Your “Grand Master” at the bank has the answer.

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