World Cup: Croatian newspapers call loss ‘injustice,’ say they were robbed in Brazil

It took all of one game for a controversy in the 2014 World Cup to spring up. Croatia had got an early lead against Brazil thanks to an own goal from Marcelo. Before the end of the first half Neymar tied things up for Brazil and they came into the second half level at one goal a piece.

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Then came the controversy. Brazilian forward Fred was backing down his defender, Croatia’s Dejan Lovren. It appeared that Fred fell backwards without much force and pulling from Lovren, looking like a flop.

Lovren was given a yellow card on the play, which occurred inside the box giving Brazil a penalty. Neymar stepped up to the spot and buried one in the back of the net to give Brazil the lead.

That goal ended up being the game winning goal and they added another goal in stoppage time to extend the lead to 3-1, a misrepresentation of how the game actually went.

Had that penalty not been awarded, Croatia might have been able to hold Brazil to a draw and stealing a point out of the match. Instead they’re at the bottom of the group with zero points and at a disadvantage from the start in the tournament.