Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica: Tite's side leave it late in Group E clash

Football

Fri June 22, 2018 · 7y ago

Late goals from Philippe Coutinho and Neymar helped Brazil to a 2-0 victory over Costa Rica.

Brazil are now 4/1 favourites with Sky Bet to win the tournament, while Coutinho and Neymar are both 14/1 with the online bookmaker to win the Golden Boot award.

After a stodgy first-half showing, Brazil, who drew their opening match with Switzerland, wasted numerous chances before Coutinho (90+1) netted his second goal of the tournament to rescue his side.

Neymar (90+6) added gloss with a further goal in added time as Douglas Costa unselfishly squared the ball past goalkeeper Keylor Navas so Neymar could finish into an open goal.

The PSG star was at the heart of the game throughout, including winning a penalty which was sensationally overturned by VAR.

At the full-time whistle Neymar was in tears, presumably with relief that Brazil had avoided a damaging result in Group E.

Both these two nations play their final group game on Wednesday, with Brazil taking on Serbia and Costa Rica playing Switzerland.

GOAL VIDEOS

Philippe Coutinho: Brazil 1-0 Costa Rica - 90+1 mins

GOAL! Firmino gets up well to cushion a header into the path of his former Liverpool teammate Coutinho who pokes home pic.twitter.com/gRJJa0FoXh
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 22, 2018

Neymar: Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica - 90+7 mins

GOAL! Brazil make it look simple. Jesus to Costa to Neymar and the PSG forward taps into an unguarded net pic.twitter.com/YER64k75Gt
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 22, 2018

Penalty appeal: VAR decision denies Neymar

Oh Neymar.... #BRACRC pic.twitter.com/dBJxT0DBxc
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) June 22, 2018

Opta match facts

This was Brazil’s first World Cup victory thanks to a goal scored in the 90th minute.
Costa Rica had just three shots in this match, with all of those coming in the opening 15 minutes.
Brazil’s second goal was timed at 96:49 – the latest recorded 90th minute goal in a World Cup match since 1966.
In all international matches, Brazil are unbeaten in 13 games (W9 D4 L0), conceding just three goals in that run.
Brazil’s Neymar has been fouled 14 times so far in the 2018 World Cup, more than any other player.
Neymar has scored 56 goals in 87 matches for Brazil – only Pele (77) and Ronaldo (62) have scored more.
Gabriel Jesus has been directly involved in 15 goals in 18 starts for Brazil (10 goals, 5 assists).