Brazil captain Silva admits agony of shock World Cup exit

Brazil captain Thiago Silva said his team’s World Cup exit to Croatia on penalties was painful and that he was coming to terms with the fact he would never win the trophy. The five-time champions lost Friday’s quarter-final 4-2 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time in Qatar.
Neymar had given them the lead in extra time but Bruno Petkovic levelled in the dying minutes of the match. “It is difficult,” said Silva. “I have been through some disappointments in my life and when we lose something important that we have as an objective it hurts quite a lot. But we have to try to lift our heads and carry on. There is no other alternative.”
The Brazil captain said his side had switched off for Croatia’s goal. “I think all of a sudden we lost our concentration,” Silva said. “We are not used to being hit on the break like that. We became a little disorganised and that is where the goal came from.”
The Chelsea centre-back, 38, has likely played his final World Cup match. “Sadly as a player I am not going to get to lift this trophy,” he said. “Who knows if in future I will get the chance in another role.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Casemiro Casemiro says it is “hard to find words” after Brazil’s unexpected World Cup quarter-final exit to Croatia but refused to declare his future at international level. The midfielder started four matches for his country in Qatar, netting the late winner in their 1-0 group stage win over Switzerland. Casemiro, who had hammered home his spot kick in the shoot-out against Croatia, attempted to unpack his emotions after a gruelling night. “All defeats are painful, especially when you have a goal, a dream, you have a four-year job for that moment,” he said.
“But it’s hard to find words. Hard to find moments. It’s lifting your head, life goes on. We are sad, everyone in the group did their best. We get upset, mainly because of the way it was. It was in our hand, it escaped there. Hard moment. Now it’s peace of mind, life has to go on.”
Casemiro refrained from ruling himself out of the international football scene, explaining he felt in good shape as things stand. He added: “I’m 30, man. Of course, there are always kids, but I’m 30 years old, I’m living the best moment of my career, I’m very happy at the club I’m at. I missed an opportunity, but we need to see.”
Casemiro will now fly back to Manchester as fellow Brazilians Antony and Fred refocus their attentions on the resumption of the domestic season at United.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Alisson said Brazil should have no regrets despite their failure to progress beyond the World Cup quarter-finals. Alisson was unable to keep out any of Croatia’s penalties but he believes Brazil – who will also be under the tutelage of a new coach after Tite reiterated his plan to leave his post – should not reflect too harshly on their performance in Qatar.
“I think what went wrong is that it’s football – anything can happen,” Alisson said. “People talked about us as favourites because of what we did on the pitch, because of our performances, because of the quality of our players. “I said before, we don’t have anything to regret, we would not change anything because we fought, prepared ourselves and were ready to try and win the World Cup. This is football, things don’t always happen the way we want. No regrets, we look forward to the challenge that’s in front of us.”
Alisson conceded “the frustration is huge” but added: “We are proud of the dedication of each player, of the things we did on the pitch. The performances were really good. In my opinion we didn’t deserve to lose this game, in the World Cup though there can be penalties and unfortunately we were defeated on that.”
Alisson, though, suggested the setback will only make Brazil’s squad grow. “We’re going to have players who have to step up now, show leadership,” he added. “We have so many players who can lead a team, so many who do that already, even the young players.
“We have young talents who will improve even more, learn from this World Cup and we have more experienced players as well who can still contribute. Now it’s difficult to think about the future, because we have so much pain at the moment, but hopefully the future will be bright for us. We have just to take this defeat, learn from that and keep on going.”