By Tonte Davies
Many football fans (except the Brazilians) may not be happy with the penalty call given against Croatia, still, Neymar was the man of the moment. Neymar inspired a comeback for Brazil after they found themselves shockingly, trailing behind courtesy a Marcelo own-goal. The golden boy of Brazil wasted no time to equalize the goal after the opener by Croatia and was involved in a controversial spot-kick which gave Brazil a 2-1 lead. Man of the match Oscar scored a third goal at the dead of time which eventually sealed the game for Seleção.
Before the opening match, Brazil thrilled global audience with colourful kaleidoscopic performances with an assemblage of music icons such as Jennifer Lopez (aka J.Lo) and rap sensation, Pitbull. What appeared to be a cynosure of eyes, was a paraplegic in “Iron-Man like exoskeleton.” The moment everyone waited for anxiously was here. The players filed out to the astonishment of eager fans that were ready to get on with the football show.
The game underway, and Croatia with the kickoff, it took the visitors up to 11 minutes to put the ball in Brazil’s net for an opening goal. Barcelona target and midfielder Rakitic, lay a forward pass to Ivica Olic on the flank then crossing a low ball into Brazil’s 18 yard box. Although Nikica Jelavic side-footed the ball, the goal his target, it was Brazilian Marcelo who tucked the ball in his own net for a goal. Described as a “remarkable” goal on fifa.com, it is noteworthy Marcelo’s own-goal is the first scored by a Brazilian in the history of the World Cup.
The opening goal stunned the team and their rambunctious fans who went silent for a short while. And it was just a short while. The Seleção fans wasted no time to rally behind their team which seemed to re-energize them. In no time, like from kickoff, Brazil was back in control of the ball with the help of Oscar regaining possession in the middle of the park. The Chelsea FC man held on firmly to the ball before passing it to Neymar who pranced off a Perisic challenge putting himself in sturdy position. The Barça man fired a low but hard ball beating the Croatian goalkeeper Pletikosa at his far left for a goal at 29 minutes sending the stadium into spiral eruption.
In the second half, Brazil continued from where they stopped in the first 45 minutes of the match: possessing the ball. However, the Croatians were not onlookers as they threatened with counter-attacks. It was until 69 minutes before Brazil earned a contentious penalty call which Croatia coach Nico Kovac described as “ridiculous.” “This was ridiculous today and if we continue in this way we will have a circus. The referee was completely out of his depth,” Kovac said. Neymar went on to convert the penalty kick on 71 minutes giving Brazil the lead and a breather.
Croatia got an equalizer with Olic involved but the assistant referee spotted an infringement on goalkeeper Julio Cesar and therefore, was disallowed. Losing the ball under pressure, Croatia conceded a third goal from Oscar that places Seleção top of the group and with three points.
Image source: GettyImages