A controversial penalty led to Brazil forward Neymar's second goal in Thursday's 2014 World Cup opener against Croatia. Watch the video below of what some believe was a blatant dive.
Referee Yuichi Nishimura called the penalty in the 68th minute with the score 1-1 when forward Fred fell on the pitch, despite after what appeared to be minimal contact from Croatia defender Dejan Lovren.
The penalty led to Neymar scoring a spot kick that then gave Brazil a 2-1 lead. Brazil eventually went on to win the opener, 3-1.
"If that was a penalty, we should be playing basketball. Those kinds of fouls are penalized there," Croatia coach Niko Kovac said, via Time.com. "That is shameful, this is not a World Cup referee. He had one kind of criteria for them and another for us. The rules were not the same."
Lovren called the penalty a "big shame" and indicated if referees were going to continue to give Brazil calls like that, then "we can give the World Cup directly to Brazil."
"Of course I am angry. I want to cry now but what can you do?" Lovren told the Associated Press. "If you look at the game I think you saw everything. So I don't need to explain."
While the penalty remains hotly contested, nobody can deny the impact Neymar had on the game with his two goals.
"It's important to start these tournaments on the right foot, with a victory," Neymar said, via Times.com. "I'm happy that I got to score, but the entire team deserves credit. We maintained our calm and showed we could battle back."
