Five-time champs Brazil kicked off their campaign in fine fashion as Richarlison’s brace secured a 2-0 victory for Tite’s men over Serbia. The Serbians were largely subdued, as Brazil pushed forward from the very outset.
The breakthrough came only in the second half, as an impressive Neymar Jr forward run resulted in a snapshot from Vinicius Jr, which rebounded kindly off Vanja Milinkovic-Savic to Richarlison, who made no mistake. The Tottenham attacker then went on to score a magical goal as he propped up a ball from Vinicius Jr. to launch a spectacular bicycle kick to seal the game.
Some cause for concern for Brazil will be the fact that Neymar was subbed off due to injury. The veteran seemed to experience pain in his ankle as he made his way back. Brazil will be hoping that the Paris Saint-Germain star is fit to continue, as Tite assured in the post-match press conference.
Meanwhile, Portugal kicked off their World Cup campaign with a tense victory over Ghana, beating the African side 3-2. Fernando Santos’ men were far from their best in their first World Cup tie in Qatar, as the Ghanaians looked set to take points off the 2016 Euro champions.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently terminated his contract with Manchester United to become a free agent, was the first on the scoresheet as he scored from the penalty spot to put his side ahead, his first goal in quite some time.
Santos started with Porto number one Diogo Costa in goal, marking a changing of the guard as veteran Rui Patricio found himself on the bench along with Jose Sa. Another Portuguese stalwart, Pepe was also benched, but Santos surprisingly played Danilo Pereira in his place instead of talented Benfica centre-half Antonio Silva. The two sides had a more or less quiet first half with not much action.
Cristiano had two huge chances to put his side ahead in the first 45 but was unable to take advantage as the sides walked into the tunnel on level terms. Ronaldo’s penalty opened the scoring in the 65th minute only for Andre Ayew to equalise just a few minutes later off Mohammed Kudus’ penetrating pass.
Just as Ghana were looking to consolidate their lead, two superbly-finished goals in two minutes from youngsters Joao Felix and Rafael Leao meant that the Portuguese took a two-goal lead with ten minutes to play.
Osman Bukari did score barely a few minutes into his introduction as the Ghanaians tried hard to mount a comeback. Portugal in the end, were able to hold out Ghana to capture a vital three points.
