- 2018 FIFA World Cup
- Brazil 1-1 Switzerland
Pre-tournament favourites Brazil kick started their campaign to win the 6th World Cup on a low note, drawing one-all with Switzerland on Sunday night.
For the first time in 40 years, Brazil failed to win their opening World Cup match with Steven Zuber’s controversial header cancelling out Philippe Coutinho’s gorgeous goal.
Brazil’s tag as pre-tournament favourite looked justified in a dominant first-half capped by Philippe Coutinho’s wonder strike to open the scoring.
However, Brazil paid for its failure to kill the game off when Zuber powered home an equaliser from Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner five minutes after the break.
The pressure will now be on Brazil to kickstart its campaign when they face Costa Rica on Friday.
Coutinho had been handed a central role behind Neymar, on his first competitive game for four months, Gabriel Jesus and Willian in a line-up filled with attacking intent from coach Tite.
The five-time world champions went about their task of erasing the memories of a 7-1 thrashing by Germany on home soil four years ago purposefully early on, dominating possession and spending most of their time in Switzerland’s half.
Paulinho passed up a glorious chance when his scuffed effort from close range was turned behind by Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
It seemed a matter of time before Brazil’s pressure paid dividends and the opener arrived in stunning style on 20 minutes.
Barcelona’s record signing Coutinho picked up a loose ball on the edge of the area and in trademark fashion bent the ball into the top corner of the net.
Neymar looked bright despite his lack of match practice as he teased the Swiss defence provoking yellow cards for Stephan Lichtsteiner, Fabian Schar and Behrami.
However, Brazil failed to build on its lead as Thiago Silva and Jesus headed off target from dangerous corners and was made to pay early in the second half.
Switzerland had offered barely any attacking threat before levelling when Zuber took advantage of a gaping hole in the heart of the Brazilian defence to head home Shaqiri’s corner five minutes into the second stanza.
Forced onto the front foot, Brazil turned to Neymar for a moment of inspiration but he could only blast into the side-netting before Coutinho sliced wide with a much simpler opportunity than the one from which he opened the scoring.
Brazil was unhappy that Zuber wasn’t penalised for a slight push on Miranda for the equaliser and felt hard done by again when Jesus tumbled under a challenge from Manuel Akanji inside the area with Mexican referee Cesar Ramos unmoved.
[Additional report by Au News]