Brazil leave it late to eliminate brave Costa Rica

Matt Morley 5 years ago 7.1k |

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Two late goals secured victory for Brazil. AFP

Two goals in added-on time from Philippe Coutinho and Neymar secured a dramatic victory for Brazil against Costa Rica on Friday after it had looked as if 'Los Ticos' were going to hold their illustrious opponents to a hard-fought draw.

The 'Seleçao' were many people's favourites to win the tournament, but they struggled to break down their opponents for a second straight game in St Petersburg.

Tite's side were frustrated by Switzerland first up and it was much the same story on Friday as Oscar Ramirez's side refused to give in for long spells.

The minnows were the first to threaten when Celso Borges side-footed a decent opening wide after meeting Christian Gamboa's cut-back from the right.

Brazil dominated possession in the first half but rarely looked like creating a gilt-edged chance as they were largely restricted to speculative efforts from range.

Marcelo, Coutinho and Willian all tried and failed to test Keylor Navas, before the former did eventually call his club team-mate into a routine save on the stroke of the break.

- Improved Brazil -

Clearly unimpressed with his side's display, Tite made a change at the break, introducing Douglas Costa for the ineffective Willian and the switch seemed to have the desired effect, with Brazil a different animal after the restart.

The 'Seleçao' quickly set about laying siege to the Costa Rica goal, with Gabriel Jesus rattling the crossbar with a towering header from Fagner's right-wing cross, before Gamboa got a vital touch on Coutinho's goal-bound effort, not that he knew an awful lot about it.

Neymar cut a frustrated figure for long periods, having been seen at half-time waiting for the referee in the tunnel to complain about the tratment he was receiving form the Central Americans.

The PSG star wasted a presentable chance himself when he curled over via the fingertips of Navas, before whipping a fierce effort inches wide of the far post from 20 yards following a rare defensive mistake from Gamboa.

- VAR controversy -

With 12 minutes to go Brazil thought they had been handed the perfect chance to break the deadlock as Neymar went down under the challenge of Gonzalez in the box, with referee Bjorn Kuijpers immediately pointing to the spot.

However, after consulting with VAR the decision was reversed, with the video footage showing that the only offence that the Costa Rica defender had committed was having the temerity to breathe on the Brazilian.

The pause for that referral, along with some shameless time-wasting from the Costa Ricans saw six minutes added on at the end of the game and Brazil made full use of them to score twice to claim all three points and move top of Group E.

First, Coutinho timed his run perfectly to steam in and meet substitute Roberto Firmino's knockdown from Marcelo's cross, with his toe-poked effort finally breaking Navas' resistance.

Then, it was Neymar's turn as Brazil took advantage of their opponents throwing men forward to counter, with Douglas Costa unselfishly squaring for the Brazil number 10 to tap home his side's second.

The win means Brazil top the group for now, wirh Costa Rica eliminated despite their brave showing.