[European/Overseas Football News]Regarding the penalty kick of the Japanese national team, who passed Group E of the FIFA World Cup (World Cup) Qatar 2022 in the lead but lost to Croatia in the first round of the final tournament and was eliminated in the round of 16, “DAZN (Dazon) ) Italy” commentator gave his opinion.
In the FIFA World Cup (World Cup) Qatar 2022 “group of death” Group E, the Japan national team, who achieved a historic feat of raising big gold stars from the champions Germany and Spain and passed the top, won the first round of the final tournament. Play against Croatia, who finished second in the group. After 120 minutes of fierce fighting, the score remained 1-1, and the match went into a penalty shootout.
However, only the third Takuma Asano succeeded in Japan, the first Takumi Minamino, the second Kaoru Mitoma, and the fourth Maya Yoshida failed. Croatia won 3-1 on penalties after only one Inter colleague of Yuto Nagatomo, Marco Rivaya, failed to secure a ticket to the last eight.
The commentators of “Dazon Italy” gave their views on the penalty shootout between Japan and Croatia in the Qatar World Cup special program “Night Cup”. Tommaso Turci said he felt uncomfortable with Japan’s second kicker, Mitoma.
“That Mitma’s penalty, which was the second mistake, was caught. After Vlasic (Croatia’s first player Nikola) scored the penalty to put Croatia in the lead, there was only a short time before Mitma kicked it. I thought I was trotting from the middle of the pitch.”
“It was the kind of feeling you get when you are about to miss a penalty kick. I also got a bit of the same impression from the way you run up before kicking the ball. I won’t.”
Stefano Borghi then defended the 25-year-old Brighton midfielder, pointing out the special atmosphere of the World Cup. “Tommy, it’s the World Cup. Mitoma faced the Croatian goalkeeper in the round of 16. How about staying calm in that scene? You can do it,” he complained to his colleague.
However, reporter Luca Farina insisted, “Putting aside the psychological story of that moment, looking at Japan’s penalty kicks objectively, I can say that those three penalties weren’t kicked well and it was a mistake.” . Borghi said: “Yes, it is. I just thought about staying cool, but Livaya, who seemed the most calm of all, hit the post. Is there a recipe for penalties? I don’t know, but maybe we can try to get used to that behavior,” he said.
Borghi also mentioned Spain, who finished second in Group E and were eliminated by Morocco on penalties.
Luis Enrique revealed at the press conference the day before that he trained 1,000 penalties, but all three of Spain’s kickers failed in the penalty shootout against Morocco. The Italian journalist said: “Luis Enrique has done a little bit. It’s hard to imagine that he kicks a penalty like that,” he said.