It was not a typical Brazilian performance but they huffed and puffed over the line against Serbians, thanks to the goals each from Paulinho and Thiago Silva. On the back of tonight’s result, Brazil head into the knockout stage of the tournament. This was not flawless football from Brazil but their recovery from a shocking draw of their opening game against Switzerland was remarkable.
Brazil will be facing Mexico in the knockout stages of the tournament in Samara. Serbia kept pushing Brazil and kept possession. But their finishing was not up to the mark.
The first goal came for Brazil when Philippe Coutinho lofted a ball over the Serb defence into the path of Paulinho who took one touch and lifted the ball over Serbain goalkeeper Stokjovic. Serbia attacked relentlessly and also came close to scoring in the earlier parts of the second half only for Thiago Silva to clear an Aleksandar Mitrovic header off the line. Another header was again cleared off the line by Brazilian goalkeeper Allison. Brazil survived narrowly through the moments of panic. However, later into the second half, a powerful header from Thiago Silva settled the Brazilian nerves and the game.
