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Croatia defender Dejan Lovren recently shared his thoughts on Brazil's dancing celebrations after scoring a goal and rubbished any claims of it being disrespectful.
The Selecao have displayed their dance moves and celebrated together after scoring a goal at the ongoing FIFA World Cup. This is nothing new as singing, dancing and flair are a part of their culture and have been going on for years.
In their recent 4-1 win over South Korea in the Round of 16, manager Tite also joined in by doing goalscorer Richarlison's pigeon dance. This ruffled a few feathers, including those of pundits Roy Keane and Jason Cundy, who felt that it was disrespectful.
Lovren, however, who is set to face the south American side in the quarterfinals with Croatia, slammed the criticism, saying (via Firstpost):
“Our goal is to try to stop the whole team, of course Brazil has a lot of individual quality, we are ready for that fight. Honestly, everyone can do what they want to celebrate, I have no issues with that.
“I don’t see any disrespect. I think Brazilians were born with songs, with dancing, it’s part of their culture.”
The Selecao are widely regarded as one of the favorites to lift the 2022 FIFA World Cup trophy. They won their opening two games against Serbia and Switzerland before losing 1-0 against Cameroon with a much-changed XI. They, however, bounced back in style, beating South Korea 4-1 in the first knockout round.
They will face Croatia in the quarterfinals on December 9 at the Education City Stadium.
Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic on facing Brazil in the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals
Croatia have blown hot and cold in Qatar so far.
The Vatreni played out a goalless draw against Morocco before hammering Canada 4-1. Zlatko Dalic's side then played out a rather fortuitous draw against Belgium in their final group game to qualify for the Round of 16. They then beat Japan 3-1 on penalties as the match ended 1-1 after extra time.
They will now face one of the tournament favorites in Brazil on Friday and Mateo Kovacic has stressed the need for Croatia to be at their best. He said:
“We are accustomed to very tough physical games in the Premier League and that’s something that we want to show against Brazil. We want to show our technical quality too, but we want to show our physical quality in every duel, every possession.”
The winner of the clash between the two sides will face either Argentina or the Netherlands in the semi-finals.
