Brazil, Portugal in tame draw
Posted: Jun 25 2010
The much-hyped match between Brazil and Portugal in Durban failed to live up to expectations as the two sides played out to a goalless draw.
It was a largely scrappy game, with the best chance falling to Portugal's Raul Meireles on the hour-mark, who had his effort tipped wide by Julio Cesar.
Brazil attacked from the start, forcing a corner within the opening moments and seeing more of the possession that the Portuguese. But the early stages were beset by mistakes as the game lacked any real fluency.
Dani Alves had one effort from 25 yards which just went wide, while Portugal could have had the lead in the 18th minute. Raul Meireles made good progress down the left and crossed for Tiago, whose volley from outside the box flew just wide.
Some end-to-end action followed as Nilmar’s shot was superbly parried onto the woodwork by Eduardo, and the striker had another effort which he sent just wide as Brazil continued to threaten on the break.
In between all this were some nasty challenges from both sides, with Dunga withdrawing Felipe Melo after just 40 minutes as his temper threatened to boil over.
Portugal had the first chance of the second half as Ronaldo broke clear down the left, but his awkward low cross was easily cut out by Lucio. But when he ran at the Brazil skipper a second time moments later it took a diving header from Juan to bail out the big number three.
Brazil continued to try to work the ball around Portugal and a decent passing move led to Dani Alves crossing from the right for Luis Fabiano, but the striker had to arch backwards to get a header on target, making it easy for Eduardo to collect.
A goal very nearly arrived on the hour-mark when Ronaldo got free of Lucio on the right, and the defender’s cover tackle ran perfectly for Raul Meireles, but he chose to shoot with the outside of his right foot and Julio Cesar was able to tip the ball wide.
An excellent tackle by Carvalho foiled Julio Baptista just 20 yards from goal, but injured both players in the process before Michel Bastos brought down Simao but Portugal wasted the free-kick.
Brazil coach Dunga appeared to still be waving his men forward when they were on the ball, but for the most part the players seemed content to stroke the ball around as the clock ran down.
They did carve out an opening in the second minute of stoppages though as Ramires unleashed a stinging effort that Eduardo kept out with a brilliant one-handed leap.
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: 2010-06-25 19:00
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