Tuesday 29 June 2010

Juanderful: Brazil 3-0 Chile 28/6/10


Brazil line-up: Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio (c), Juan, Bastos, Gilberto, Luis Fabiano (Nilmar, 76'), Kaka (Kleberson, 81'), Robinho (G.Melo, 85'), Alves, Ramires
Chile line-up: Bravo (c), Fuentes, Isla (Millar, 62'), Contreras (Valdivia, HT), Carmona, Sanchez, Vidal, Suazo, Gonzalez (Tello, HT), Beausejour, Jara

Brazil cruise through to the quarter finals to set up a tie against Holland for a place in the semis. Chile very little throughout the match and Brazil used some more of that samba magic to please all spectators. Chile hadn't beaten Brazil for something like forty years and despite having the most possession in the opening fifteen minutes, Brazil always looked more potent in attacks. Luis Fabiano looked lively but failed to connect with his opening shot and Gilberto forced a fine save from Bravo when he fired one from the distance. The opener was coming and everyone could sense it, it arrived just under 35 minutes from a corner; Juan climbing highest in the box to connect with Maicon's corner and head past the on-rushing Bravo. Chile could hardly get their breath back before finding themselves 2-0 down; Brazil playing a lovely counter-attack with, unsurprisingly, Robinho at the helm of it. He played a ball into Kaka, who looked much more lively in this game than throughout the tournament so far, Kaka then played an inch perfect through ball into the path of Sevilla's Luis Fabiano who rounded the keeper before slotting into the empty net. The effort on target from Chile in the first half came from Humberto Suazo but his edge of the box shot failed to make Julio Cesar sweat.

As shown in the group phase Marcelo Bielsa wasn't afraid to change his team at half-time, making a double change at half-time Chile were throwing all their attacking options onto the pitch. But they failed to make much impact as Brazil played a hugely compacted defence and looked to create via the counter-attack. This is something Holland are going to have to be creative with and keep the pitch as wide as possible. Brazil's third and probably their best came from their counter-attacking threat; Ramires broke from midfield and skilfully went past two Chileans before rolling the ball into Robinho who curled his shot neatly into the corner beating Bravo all ends up. With the game over and the pressure off Chile, they started to create some decent chances with Brazil now in party mood. However both Suazo and substitute Valdivia failed to find the net and Chile went home without scoring, but they reflect on a very successful qualifying campaign and a very successful World Cup overall for themselves.


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