By: James K. Attaglo Wilson
Brazil were put to a chilled test yesterday at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte by a well drilled Chilean side that stretched the former world champions to it elastic limit.
After a pulsating 1-1 drawn game where the host were saved by the god of crossbar when Chile’s Mauricio Pinilla’s strike in the extra time went straight into the wood work to push the game into the lottery where Brazil won by 3 – 2.
Brazil took the lead in the 18th minute through David Luis from Neymar’s corner kick and quickly went to sleep as the Chilean’s dominated all the angles on the field and benefited from Hulks mistake to level the scores in the 32 minute through Barcelona’s Alexis Sanchez.
The second half was dominated by the breath-taking Chilean attacking football and the mistakes of English referee Howard Web who nearly became Brazil’s public enemy for wrongly disallowing Hulks goal deep into the half.
With tears down the eyes of the Brazilian spectators and some of their players, Davis Luiz stepped up to score Brazils first penalty kick. Then Julio Cesar saved Pinilla’s own to give Brazil the advantage which was quickly lost as Willian put his shot wide.
Julio Cesar saved Brazil again for the second time when he blocked Alexis Sanchez’s shot. Real Madrid’s leftback Marcelo restored the host lead but Charles Aranguiz got one past Cesar. Claudio Bravo stopped Hulks effort only for Marcelo Diaz to put Chile level but their hope was short-lived as Neymar made his effort count by putting one past Bravo.
The onus fell on Gonzalo Jara to bring Chile back into the game but his timely kick struck the inside of the post.
The five time world champions will have to put up an extra ordinary performance if they really want to keep their hope of winning their sixth FIFA World Cup as they come face-to-face with the dazzling Colombia on Friday.
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