Croatia’s hero Livakovic is a legend in the game

After saving 3 penalties in the penalty shootout in the victory over Japan in the round of 16, goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic once again became a hero to help Croatia overcome Brazil in the penalty shootout and win tickets. 2022 World Cup semi-finals.

Livakovic is 1.88 m tall, born in 1995 and is currently the goalkeeper of Dinamo Zagreb. He made his debut for Croatia in 2017 and made 37 appearances. At the 2018 World Cup, Livakovic only played a backup role for senior Subasic.

Dominik Livakovic once again became a hero to help Croatia overcome Brazil in the penalty shootout and win tickets to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals. Photo: Reuters.

At the age of 27, Livakovic is at the peak of his career. However, playing only for his hometown club Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian league makes this goalkeeper still strange to most football fans.

Legend in the game

However, with the community of players of the famous football management game Football Manager (FM), Dominik Livakovic is likened to a “legend” that every player must bring back to their team.

The goalkeeper born in 1995 began to enter the list of “wonderkid” (top young talent, or can be called a prodigy) of European football in FM version 2019.

Based on the set of stats simulated by the game team, Livakovic is a fairly comprehensive goalkeeper with very good stats such as 17/20 catching the ball, 15/20 defending the ball, and bodybuilding skills, physically very similar.

From the 2019 FM version, Livakovic is a fairly comprehensive goalkeeper with a very good and even set of stats. Image: Sports Interactive.

From the FM version 2020 onwards, Livakovic’s potential index is upgraded to 4/5 stars, which means that the possibility of developing into a world-class superstar is very high.

At the FM 2021 version, Livakovic is one of the goalkeepers with the ability to make an excellent save. The Croatia goalkeeper’s ability to save, especially from 1-on-1 situations, seems to be hard to match in the game.

In addition, Livakovic is also a good sweeper goalkeeper (tends to go out to relieve the home team like Neuer) and is quite good in the air.

Most especially, the point that makes Livakovic “liked” by the gaming community is legendary because the price that players have to spend to buy this goalkeeper is only about 10 million pounds, because he plays for Dinamo Zagreb.

At this price, hardly any player in the game can be as profitable as Livakovic. With high potential and an almost perfect basic skill set, Livakovic only needs to be in the squad for 3 years or more to become a world-class goalkeeper.

At this time, players will often receive offers from big clubs with prices from 80-100 million pounds.

From the FM 2020 version onwards, Livakovic is upgraded and becomes one of the goalkeepers who can save the game for only 10 million pounds. Image: Sports Interactive.

Football Manager (FM) is a famous football management game series developed by Sports Interactive and published by SEGA.

Many coaches and football professionals also play this game because of the rich and highly realistic data store, such as Mourinho or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Even former football club scouts use FM’s database of footballers to find potential young talent.

Step into the light

Although Livakovic is highly appreciated by experts, for many reasons this goalkeeper still chooses to stay in Dinamo Zagreb.

However, in the last two seasons in European competitions, Dinamo Zagreb with Livakovic in the wooden frame twice caused the Premier League representatives to receive painful defeats. Coincidentally, coaches Jose Mourinho and Thomas Tuchel were also later sacked by Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea respectively.

In the FM 2023 version, Livakovic has the two strongest skills, which are reflexes (18/20 points) and one-on-one with the opponent (19/20 points). Against Chelsea in the Champions League group stage, both of those skills were on display as he made two crucial late saves in a row.

In the 2022 World Cup arena, Livakovic really came to light when, along with central defender Josko Gvardiol, became a “steel shield” protecting Croatia’s net.

Livakovic made 11 saves against Brazil’s strikers. Image: Reuters.

Dominik Livakovic became Croatia’s hero in the penalty shootout in the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup when he successfully saved 3 penalties from Japan. Croatia won with a score of 3-1 in the penalty shootout and qualified for the quarter-finals of the World Cup 2022.

In the quarter-finals, Livakovic even upgraded his personal performance with a match of a lifetime when he made 11 saves against Brazil’s strikers.

These saves were all in a one-on-one position, proving that the FM game development team gave Livakovic this 19 skill point to be extremely accurate.

On the fateful penalty shootout, Dinamo Zagreb’s goalkeeper continued to play a key role when he successfully blocked Rodrygo’s first shot on the Brazilian side.

Livakovic successfully saved Rodrygo’s first shot on the Brazilian side. Image: Reuters.

This invisibly put extreme pressure on the “samba dancers”, leading to Marquinhos’ final shot hitting the post, knocking Brazil out in the quarterfinals.

It is almost certain that Dominik Livakovic will be a hot name after this year’s World Cup, similar to the case of goalkeeper Keylor Navas at the 2014 World Cup.

Once again, Football Manager’s data warehouse shows amazingly accurate simulation capabilities with the world football fan community.