Brazil treat the Maracana to a feast of football

The FIFA Confederations Cup drew to a close last night as hosts Brazil produced a resounding display to beat current World Cup Champions Spain 3-0 in the spectacular Maracana Stadium to lift their 3rd Confederations Cup title in a row.

The highly anticipated fixture, the first competitive match between Brazil and Spain since 1986, was a mesmerizing affair as both teams were eager to lift the trophy but it would be the hosts who surprised the football world with a resounding victory that delighted the host nation.

Spain hadn’t lost a competitive fixture since their opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Switzerland at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban but the manner of the defeat against the Brazilians will be of concern to Vicente Del Bosque who will be under no illusion to the size that will await his charges a year from now as they set about trying to retain their World Cup crown.

Brazil got off to a perfect start opening the scoring within two minutes as Fred latched onto a scramble in the small box and lashed home past Iker Casillas after a cross from Hulk took an awkward touch off Neymar before landing at his feet. The Maracana erupted and Brazil had the dream platform to build on.

Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar was hardly tested by an ineffective Spanish attack and Brazil ensured that they went into the halftime break with a comfortable lead. A neat one-two between Neymar and Oscar saw the Barcelona-bound prodigy Neymar lash the ball into the roof of the net to hand the hosts a 2-0 lead.

Shortly after the interval it was 3-0 as Fred scored his second goal of the evening calmly stroking the ball into the bottom corner of the next after a pass from Hulk, Neymar letting the ball run past him, and the ball fell kindly to Fred who made no mistake, scoring his 5th goal of the tournament.

Spain were handed an opportunity to reduce the deficit via the penalty spot as Jesus Navas was tripped in the area by left back Marcelo but Sergio Ramos skewed his penalty wide and with it any chance of producing a late comeback.

From a football perspective the Confederations Cup tournament provided Brazil with a chance to test preparations before the actual World Cup tournament and there’s no doubt that Brazil rose to the occasion. However, the tournament was overshadowed by wave of anti-government protests that swept across Brazil as demonstrators complained about the high costs of hosting the World Cup tournament.

*Picture source www.thesun.co.uk

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