Brazil held by Switzerland

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Coutinho of Brazil celebrates after opening the scoring against Switzerland.
  • Post published:June 17, 2018

Brazil continued the trend of tournament favourites underperforming as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland in their World Cup Group E opener in Rostov.

Vladimir Petkovic’s side began on the front foot, with Xherdan Shaqiri sending a bouncing cross towards Blerim Dzemaili and the Bologna midfielder fired over the crossbar with a shot on the turn.

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Their promising start could not last and soon Switzerland were sitting back as Brazil passed the ball crisply around the pitch, almost finding a breakthrough when Paulinho dragged a shot across the face of goal and wide of the far post with 10 minutes played.

Just 10 minutes later, Switzerland were reeling from a piece of sublime, quintessentially Brazilian skill.

Marcelo’s cross from the left bounced back out of the box to the feet of Philippe Coutinho, who took a touch to control it before unleashing a shot that curled spectacularly around helpless goalkeeper Yann Sommer and in off the post.

Having taken the lead, Brazil slowed the pace of the game down and frustrated Switzerland, whose only subsequent attacking foray before half-time ended disappointingly with Steven Zuber firing a shot straight into Thiago Silva, who headed narrowly over the crossbar at the other end just before the interval.

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Switzerland drew level only four minutes into the second half when a corner from Shaqiri found Zuber unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box and he had the simple task of heading the ball beyond Alisson and high into the centre of the goal.

Neymar fired into the side-netting from inside the penalty area and Fernandinho hit a speculative long-range shot wide to the left of the target as Brazil probed for a goal to restore their lead, but their attacks lacked the necessary urgency.

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Coutinho had another chance to score with 20 minutes left but his neat control was followed by a wayward drive, and Gabriel Jesus saw a penalty appeal waved away when he was challenged by Manuel Akanji in the box.

Two late chances fell to Brazil substitute Roberto Firmino, but the Liverpool forward lashed the ball over before drawing a reaction save from Sommer with a close-range header, and Miranda almost made amends for his failure to mark Zuber earlier but fired wide from 18 yards as Switzerland held on for a deserved point that was secured when a Fabian Schar block prevented Coutinho from having the final say.