Croatia defeated five-time FIFA World Cup winners Brazil 4-2 on penalties on Saturday to seal a place in the semifinal. However, there was a rare sight during halftime as Croatia skipper Luka Modric exchanged his shirt with Brazil’s Casemiro.
While it’s common for players to swap shirts after the match, the pair exchanged their kit at half-time itself because they played together at Real Madrid.
Modric had joined Real Madrid in 2012 and forged an all-conquering midfield trio with Casemiro and Toni Kroos when Zinedine Zidane took over as coach. Under Zidane, Real Madrid won three UEFA Champions League titles in a row, with Modric, Casemiro and Kroos playing a key role down the years.
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Thus, given their obvious close bond, the pair of Modric and Casemiro swapped their shirts at halftime. This was the first time they square off in a competitive match against each other.
In total, the duo won a total of 18 trophies, including four Champions League titles. Casemiro recently moved to Manchester United, thus ending his 9-year partnership with Modric and Kroos.
Their bromance was also visible when Casemiro scored his penalty and took the ball and handed it straight to Modric whose turn to take the penalty was next.
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In the end, Croatia qualified on penalties, but it could have so easily been a very different outcome as the two teams were level for the entire 90 minutes, but Brazil finally took the lead after Neymar broke the deadlock scoring a sublime solo goal.
Just when it seemed that the Croatians were headed home, Bruno Petkovic scored in extra time to send the match to penalties, thus turning the momentum in his side’s favour as they won 4-2 after the match ended 1-1.
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