The Brazilian team fulfilled its role on Friday night (19) and won a victory over Haiti by a good margin.
Faced with an opponent that has never scored in the history of the World Cup, Brazil imposed its clear technical superiority to win 3-0 at Lincoln Financial Field, in Philadelphia (USA), a score defined in the first half.
Attacking midfielder Matheus Cunha was one of Carlo Ancelotti’s bets after the disappointing draw with Morocco in the debut.
The number 9 had a great performance, with two goals in a day in which Vinicius Junior also scored. The bad news was Raphinha’s departure due to an injury to his right thigh.
With the rout, the Canarian team reached four points and took the lead in Group C of the World Cup, with a two-goal advantage over Morocco – which scored 1-0 in Scotland.
In the final round of the group, on Wednesday (24), Brazil will face Scotland, in Miami Gardens, and Morocco will face Haiti, in Atlanta.
The team returned from the break at a slightly slower pace and even offered Haiti an opportunity: Alisson made a good save on Ricardo Adé’s header, and Danilo cleared it away.
Then, in the 19th minute, Carlo Ancelotti decided to breathe new life into Brazil’s attack, with Endrick and Gabriel Martinelli replacing Matheus Cunha and Lucas Paquetá. Rayan had already replaced Raphinha. None of them managed to increase the score.
“The team played better in the first half, with more intensity in the game, more quality up front. The athletes made good attacking combinations during the match. We scored five goals, but canceled out two,” said Ancelotti, who is now starting to prepare the team for the duel with Scotland.
“We improved today [sexta-feira] and we need to improve in the next game”, said the Italian.
Scotland 0 x 1 Morocco
In Brazil’s other group game, which is C, Ismael Saibari was once again decisive for Morocco.
After scoring in the draw against Brazil on his debut, the striker scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Scotland this Friday, in Boston, and left Group C open for the final round.
The move that defined the match came in the first Moroccan attack. Brahim Díaz launched behind the Scottish defense, Saibari advanced freely down the right and hit Angus Gunn hard. The ball even touched the bottom of the crossbar before entering.
The goal became the fastest of this World Cup, at 69 seconds, until Paraguay scored at 64 seconds against Turkey, hours later.
Both, however, are outside the list of the ten fastest in the history of the competition. The record belongs to striker Hakan Sukur, from Turkey, who found the net after 11 seconds against South Korea in a match that was worth third place in the 2002 World Cup.
Dominant in the first half, the United States beat Australia 2-0 in the second round of Group D, in Seattle, and secured qualification for the 32-team phase, the first knockout stage of this expanded edition, with 48 countries, one round in advance.
With the victory, the Americans reached 6 points and took the isolated lead of the group.
Well organized, the US team dominated the match in the first half and forced Australia to remain defensive, with rare opportunities for counterattacks.
The Americans opened the scoring 11 minutes into the first half with an own goal from Cameron Burgess. Alex Freeman added a header in the 43rd minute, a goal validated by the VAR (video referee) check after suspicion of offside.
Türkiye 0 x 1 Paraguay
Paraguay achieved a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Turkey in the early hours of this Saturday (20) at the Levi’s Stadium, in the San Francisco region (USA), in the second game of Group D of the World Cup.
With the result, the South American team moves to 3 points and maintains its chances of qualifying for the 32-team phase. Turkey, with its second defeat, is the second eliminated, after Haiti.
In the last game of the group, on Thursday (25), Turkey will play goodbye against the already classified USA, while Paraguay will face off against Australia for the place, as both teams have 3 points.
Midfielder Galarza’s goal, with a shot 1min04s into the game, was the quickest in this edition of the World Cup.
After the Paraguayan goal, the Turks started to get more anxious and started trying shots from all sides, with low efficiency. Most didn’t even hit Gill’s goal. In the entire match, there were 32 Turkish shots and only 5 hit the Paraguayan goal.
At 47 minutes, an unprecedented move occurred. With the intervention of the VAR (video referee), Salvadoran referee Iván Barton sent off Paraguayan attacking midfielder Almirón because he covered his mouth with his hand to say something to Turkish full-back Müldür.
According to FIFA’s new rule, this action is prohibited and punishable by a red card.
The rule was created in April this year and is known as the Vinicius Junior Law, due to the case of racism suffered by the Real Madrid striker in Spain, when Argentine Prestianni, from Benfica, covered his mouth to offend the Brazilian in a Champions League game.
