In what could be one of the most beautiful moments from the FIFA World Cup 2022, Brazil’s star player Neymar was consoled by a young fan from Croatia, who also happens to be the son of one of their players featuring in the tournament. He is Leo Perisic, son of Ivan Perisic, who ran across the field to hug the Brazilian striker after the South American giants were knocked out as Croatia booked a place in the semi-finals. The Croatia vs Brazil quarterfinal went down the wire. Both sides played neck and neck. After the 90 minutes, the game went into extra time. Neymar provided a 1-0 lead to Brazil, but only for a short time as Croatia scored the equaliser. The match went into a penalty shootout and Brazil eventually lost it.
The loss to Croatia led to tears flowing from the eyes of the Brazil players, Neymar was no exception as he looked broken in the middle. But then a lovely moment occurred as Leo went up to him to shake hands. Neymar acknowledged the warmth in this gesture and hugged him and gave a kiss of the forehead, making it one of the moving pictures from the World Cup so far. The Beautiful Game lived up to its class yet again, in that very moment.
Watch Croatia footballer’s son hug Neymar below:
Ivan Perisic’s son, Leo, ran over to console Neymar after the match _
Sports. ,#Qatar2022 #FIFAWorldCup #Brasil #neymarjr #neymar #Croatia #CroatiaVsBrasil pic.twitter.com/kT7pNePbNj— Eduardo Colin (@LE_CoLiN) December 9, 2022
Croatia will now meet Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the semi-finals. In the 2nd quarter-final, some ugly scenes were seen after Argentina beat Netherlands to move into the semis. Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal had attacked Messi in the build up to this match. And when Messi scored in the game, he gave back to VGL in his own style. Later, Messi’s video went viral where he could be heard calling Netherlands star Wout Weghorst ‘stupid’ while giving a TV interview.