In what was another dominating score-line, Brazil recorded a win in their second match of the group stage. The result means Tite and company remain undefeated in the Copa América 2021. They might have claimed a 4-0 win over Peru but that did not stop the local media from coming at them. In actual fact, the score-line was not exactly reflective of how the game went.
Regardless of the defeat, Peru had a good game. The Brazilian press hit at the fact that despite the win, Brazil did not play as well as they did in previous games. For their part, they praised the great tactical approach that Peru used in the match over the entire first half. It was no surprise to see that Peru dominated most of the ball in the first period.
The team led by Gareca, raised a first half full of offensive intent, in fact they played directly against the Brazilian team
For their part, Brazil showed a rather slow game and despite the fact that its creators managed the game times in the first half, they did not appear to be an offensive team.
However, Alex Sandro opened the scoring early on after Gabigol crossed the ball inside the area so that he only had to push the ball for 1-0.
One might think that after the goal Brazil would take control of the game, but the opposite happened. It was Peru that took the initiative to go on the attack and on two occasions they almost got an equalizer
Neymar was even criticized for slowing down the game on some occasions.
After the break, Brazil tried to prevail on the pitch, but Peru had a tactical approach that was very difficult for them to break. It was not until minute 68 that Neymar managed to break the Peruvian goal and set the score with two goals in favor of the Brazilian team.
After this second goal, Brazil managed to regain control of the game, but little by little they lowered their guard and physical exhaustion began to take its toll on what Gareca led.
In the end, Brazil added two more late on via Everton Ribeiro and Richarlison to make it 4-0 but it was not their best performance by any means.
A big talking point was an emotional Neymar in the post-match conference, reacting after he edged closer to meeting Pele’s 77 goals for Brazil.
Speaking after the game, he said: “It is obvious for me that this is a great honor, to be a part of Brazil history,”
“To be very honest, my dream was to play for Brazil, wear this shirt. I never imagined I would get to these numbers.”
“It is very emotional to me because I went through a lot of things over these last two years, difficult and complicated things. These numbers are nothing compared to the happiness I have playing for Brazil.”
