Brazil have left it very late to pinch a 2-0 win over a determined Costa Rica.
After 90 minutes of deep and dogged defending by the Central Americans, their goal was only breached in the first minute of injury time as Firminho and Gabriel Jesus combined to set up Coutinho, who scored his second goal of the tournament, this time from close range.
Click here to re-live the game as it happened with The Roar’s blog.
With Los Ticos flattened and exhausted, the Brazilians ran in another one through Neymar just before the final whistle.
But the apparently comfortable scoreline belied the frustrating nature of the game for the Selecao.
All through the match they dominated possession and territory, as you would expect. In the first half, they struggled to get through the Costa Rican defence in any way, reduced on multiple occasions to speculative shots from long range.
For their part Costa Rica tried to counterattack when given the opportunity, but apart from an early chance to Borges didn’t appear likely to break through either.
At half time, there was just one shot on target between the two sides – a long and unthreatening effort by Marcelo.
At the start of the second half the Brazilians began to show a bit more deliberation in attack, looking to get the ball further into the six yard box and put Keylor Navas’ goal under real pressure; but the Real Madrid stopper was up to the task with several crucial interventions after being largely unchallenged in the first half.
Brazil’s Neymar celebrates (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Glorious chances for each of Neymar, Paulinho, and Casemiro were kept out by the keeper, and despite the occasional sloppy moment his defenders were generally solid.
As the game dragged on signs of desperation began to appear for the Brazilians, and it appeared as though their chance might have come and gone after a penalty was awarded for a foul on Neymar in the 77th minute, only for it to be overturned on Video Review.
It was a confusing moment, as the vision clearly showed Neymar obstructed by an outstretched arm from Gonzalez, the Costa Rican defender trying to keep the Paris Saint-Germainstriker from getting around him.
But the referee curiously reversed his own decision after seeing the vision. Possibly it was a response to Neymar’s elaborate gesture, throwing himself back to draw attention to the foul.
It was a misuse of the VAR system. There’s a fine line on a clear and obvious error but that was certainly not one. I can only think that the referee was irked on seeing Neymar’s theatrics and refused the penalty out of pique.
That seemed to temporarily deflate the Brazilians. But they continued to press into dangerous areas and eventually a smart bit of work by Firminho, after a hopeful long ball, set up the breakthrough goal.
Los Ticos had run their hearts out defending for the length of the game, and simply didn’t have an attacking effort in them during injury time. With the game now opened up, Brazil ran in a cheap second goal as Costa set up a tap in for Neymar.
Brazil now have four points, and most likely can qualify with a draw in their third group game against Serbia. Of course, they’ll be looking to win and top the group.
Despite gallant efforts against strong opposition, Costa Rica are now no chance of making the next stage, with no points and no goals from their two games.
They’ll play their final game against Switzerland on Thursday morning (AEST) for pride.
Possibly they can take some consolation out of holding out a mighty Brazilian attacking force for 90 minutes, but not quite for long enough.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Manchester City have chalked up another big win in their hunt for an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League title, with Phil Foden continuing his…
Here is the way the Roar expert panel sees all the action unfolding across the final weekend of play prior to the semi-finals.
Despite the short nature of his tenure as a professional manager, Arne Slot has established himself as arguably the most impressive manager outside of…
Everton won the Merseyside derby 2-0, with Toffees supporters taunting Liverpool after the game at their home ground Goodison Park.
Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have blasted a hole in Liverpool's Premier League title challenge as Everton powered their way to a priceless derby…
The real concern comes down to football's growing trend of big corporations taking up slices of the world game at the expense of smaller teams.
