Luiz Felipe Scolari's men put the Socceroos to the sword
with a commanding display on Saturday night
Brazil continued their impressive recent form with a 6-0
thrashing of Australia.
Two goals from Jo and a strike from Neymar put the
Selecao 3-0 in front at half-time and second-half efforts from Ramires,
Alexandre Pato and Luiz Gustavo added gloss to a resounding victory.
After dominating the opening exchanges, it took Brazil
just eight minutes to open the scoring.
Neymar found Bernard at the back post and after his
volley hit the woodwork, Jo was on hand to slam home the rebound from close
range.
The second arrived in the 33rd minute, when Paulinho
seized on a loose pass from Brett Holman. Maicon moved the ball forward quickly
to Bernard, who crossed for Jo to net again.
Less than two minutes later, Brazil made it 3-0 and put
the result beyond any doubt.
Ramires' slide-rule pass in behind the Australia defence
allowed Neymar to ease past Ryan McGowan and the Barcelona forward raced away
to slip a cool finish beyond Mark Schwarzer.
Maxwell replaced the injured Marcelo at left-back for the
second half and it was the substitute who supplied the cross for Brazil's
fourth, as he picked out Ramires to head beyond Schwarzer in the 58th minute.
A beautifully crafted move involving two more substitutes
then engineered Brazil's fifth on 73 minutes. Hernanes scooped the ball over
Australia's backline, with Neymar cutting the ball back to Pato, who
back-heeled the ball into the back of the net.
More punishment arrived with seven minutes to go, when
Luiz Gustavo exchanged passes with Neymar before slamming a strike from
distance beyond Schwarzer.
In a worrying subtext for the Brazilian government ahead
of the World Cup, there were renewed clashes between protesters and police
before the match, although not on the scale of the unrest that marked the
Confederations Cup in June.
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