- Brazil beat Chile on penalties to reach World Cup quarter-finals
The hosts duly advanced to the quarter-finals but not after a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out that they won 3-2 when Chile’s Gonzalo Jara smacked his attempt against the post after Neymar had scored his team’s fifth and final penalty.
In Brazil, they do not appear to think the national anthems is to be sung. Not in this World Cup anyway. They bellow it instead, heads back, faster and faster, louder and louder. David Luiz, eyes boggling, veins popping, looked like he might actually start head-banging at one point and, brilliantly, the mascots were not holding back either. Chile’s national anthem had been stirring. Brazil’s made you wonder if this was a Rage Against The Machine cover version.
The volume barely dropped from that point onwards and it quickly became apparent that a crowd of great vibrancy and colour – 10% rhubarb, 90% custard – would have an occasion to match the noise. This was not a game when the Mexican wave started out of a need for entertainment.
There was too much on the pitch to hold everyone’s attention. Neymar – elusive, quick of feet and mind – seemed to be involved in everything. Yet the nature of Alexis Sánchez’s equaliser also gave the game a clear sense that Brazil might be vulnerable, too. Together, it made for great entertainment in the unrelenting sun and din.
Chile were everything you would expect: quick to the ball, strong in the tackle, chasing everything and at their most dangerous when they were closing down their opponents. Brazil will always be guilty of occasional carelessness and Sánchez’s goal was a personal ordeal for Hulk. Marcelo, taking a routine throw-in from the left-back position, simply wanted the ball played back to him. Hulk’s touch was short and Eduardo Vargas nipped in to turn the ball across the penalty area. Sánchez took a touch to steady himself and the Barcelona player is too talented to pass up that kind of gift.
Brazil had been dominating to the point the goal felt like a jolt to the system. Gary Medel had warned off Neymar with a personal introduction inside the opening few minutes, but Brazil’s No 10 was undeterred, playing as if he wanted to grace that famous shirt. Neymar played as he has all tournament: as if immune to the pressures that have placed upon those slender shoulders.
His corner led to the opening goal, whipping the ball into the six-yard box with the speed that turns a routine cross into a dangerous one. Thiago Silva was the first player to read the trajectory of the ball, heading it on to the back post where Gonzalo Jara had made the crucial error of taking a step out. David Luiz was behind him and Jara, in his haste to correct his mistake, jutted out his right leg to try to block the danger. The ball flew into the net and though Luiz seemed desperate to take the acclaim it looked to be more like an own goal.
Brazil could have been forgiven, five minutes earlier, for feeling aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty. Hulk had exchanged passes with Neymar, then broken into the penalty area and was beyond the nearest defender, Mauricio Isla, when their legs came together and he went down.
Howard Webb, from a poor vantage point, waved play on and the decibels went up again, this time with anger and disbelief.
That, however, was nothing compared to the brouhaha on 55 minutes and, again, Webb was at the centre of it. Marcelo lifted a long, diagonal pass over the Chile defence and Hulk was a yard ahead, controlling the ball at the corner of his chest and shoulder before putting the ball in the net. His arms were raised and perhaps that swayed Webb’s mind in blowing his whistle for handball. The decision will polarise opinion and if it was a mistake it was certainly not an obvious one. What Webb should not have done was book Hulk for a legitimate attempt to control the ball. The outrage was loud and genuine but, then again, it was always going to be with a crowd this partisan.
Luiz Felipe Scolari brought on Jô not long afterwards and the striker quickly set about reminding us of his days at Manchester City with a feeble attempt to turn in Hulk’s cross, from a position when he really ought to have scored. Chile, however, had begun the second half impressively and it had needed a reflex save from Júlio César to prevent Aranguiz putting them into the lead.
Neymar and Hulk might still have won it but Claudio Bravo saved from them both and, in the dying moments of extra-time, the Chilean substitute Mauricio Pinilla cracked a cannonball of a shot against the crossbar.
