BrazilvsCroatia updates results

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Brazil 3.                                                                           Croatia  1.

Brazil 3 1 Croatia: Neymar Scores Twice And Escapes A Sending Off As Oscar Stunner Rounds Off Opening Win For Hosts. Oscar Scored The Goal Of The Night, So In The End It Did Not Matter. A Lovely Little Prod, Knowing Croatian Goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa Was Dreadfully Slow Down, Put Sufficient Distance Between These Teams To Restore Credibility. Until That Moment, However, This Was One For The Conspiracy Theorists. After The Penalty That Gave Brazil The Lead, And Croatia's Disallowed Goal, If This Is The Way The World Cup Is To Be Won, It Appears The Scandals Will Not Be Limited To Events Off The Field. One Of The Softest Penalty Decisions Of Recent Memory Was All That Divided The Teams Until Oscar Intervened In The Last Minute, Giving The More Extreme Cynics A Head Start On Their Speculation About The Lengths The Governing Body Will Go To In Order To Keep The Hosts In The Tournament. Brazil Had The Best Of The Game, But Were Struggling To Find A Way Through When Fred Not As Exciting A Forward As His Name Suggests Backed In To Dejan Lovren And Then Fell Beneath The Merest Contact From The Croatian Defender. Yuichi Nishimura, The Japanese Referee, Needed No Second Invitation To Do The Bidding Of The Arena Corinthians And Pointed To The Spot. Brazil's No 10 Did The Rest. Neymar Is The First Brazilian Wearing That Famous Shirt To Score A Goal In The World Cup Since Rivaldo In 2002. In Fact, He Got Two. Yet While Brazil's First Half Equaliser Showed The Hosts At Their Best Despite The Assistance Of Some Poor Goalkeeping The Second Saw Fifa's Match Officials At Their Worst. Croatia Deserved A Point Here, For Their Determination To Play Brazil As Equals And Can Even Count Themselves Unlucky Not To Have Kept Out Neymar's Attempt From The Spot. The Man Of The Hour Jockeyed To The Left, Stuttered And Half Stopped Before Shooting, But Goalkeeper Pletikosa Still Got Both Hands To The Ball, Only To Divert It Into The Side Of The Net, Rather Than Around The Post. By The Time Ivan Perisic Had Put The Ball Into An Unguarded Net, With Seven Minutes Remaining, Only For Nishimura To Blow For A Very Soft Foul On Goalkeeper Julio Cesar, It Was Only Too Apparent The Way This Match Was Going. The Way It Needed To Go. This Is Undoubtedly A Coincidence; But A Rather Handy One, Nonetheless, As Some Will Be Quick To Point Out. When He Assesses The Replays Nobody Owes Oscar A Greater Vote Of Thanks Than Nishimura. Croatia's Gameplan From The Start Was Sheer Common Sense. Not Coach Niko Kovac's Decision To Set Out A Tight 4 3 3 As Such, But His Decision To Play, Not Brazil, But The 11 Players In Front Of Him. To Play The Team That Included The Ineffectual Tottenham Hotspur Midfielder Paulinho, And Oscar Who Couldn't Get In Chelsea's Team By The End, And David Luiz Who Was Always Regarded, In The Premier League At Least, As A Bit Of A Flake.