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Croatian national team players were understandably excited after forward Mario Mandžukić scored the deciding goal in extra time against England at the World Cup yesterday, and some photographers got more caught up in the celebration than they expected.

Watch the video and gifs at the bottom of this post and you’ll see a scrum of celebrating Croatian players pile on top of photographers behind the goal and then almost gentlemanly help pull them to their feet afterwards. One player, defender Domagoj Vida, even plants a kiss on photographer Yuri Cortez’ forehead as a way of apology. Here's Cortez' angle of the celebration:

Some images of the dramatic celebration of Croatia's second goal against England during the semi final of the world cup #FifaWorldCup2018 #EnglandvsCroatia #CRO #CROvENG #CROENG #RussiaWorldCup2018 #Russia2018 #Rusia2018 #Nikon #CroaciaInglaterra pic.twitter.com/4wTwObDT8t

— Yuri Cortez (@YuriYurisky) July 12, 2018

And here's a shot of a smiling Cortez on the ground with the Croatian players surrounding him. For a sports photographer, it might not get any better than this!

Atropellado por el éxtasis croata, caído en el suelo, pero siempre con el dedo en el gatillo. Imagen para mostrar en las escuelas de fotografía. pic.twitter.com/nAr3E8Dvgh

— Sergio Gómez (@Sergiogom) July 11, 2018

As several people on Twitter remarked, it was one of the highlights of the World Cup for them. For photographers covering one of the biggest sporting events in the world, it’s all in a day’s work!

One day ill get a kiss from a World Cup player while covering a game #Goals

pic.twitter.com/UY29IUrbJJ

— Wiso Vazquez (@WisoVazquez) July 11, 2018

#CRO piled on top of the photographers after scoring a huge extra time goal pic.twitter.com/FPaDQoEepn

— Marcus Gilmer (@marcusgilmer) July 11, 2018

Team Croatia apologizes to photographers after accidentally trampling them celebrating a goal in the #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/FMlkr0cIyE

— Brian Koerber (@bkurbs) July 11, 2018

Via Mashable