Two Ronaldinho penalties and goals from Ze Roberto and Robinho earned Brazil a 4-1 victory over Paraguay to put them within one point of group leaders Argentina. Brazil play against arch rivals Argentina in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
Carlos Alberto Parreira played 21-year-old Santos striker Robinho, and Inter Milan’s Adriano to the delight of the 50,000 fans in the Porto Alegre-RS stadium.
The first goal came in the 32rd minute from a penalty cooly converted by Ronaldinho following a handball.
8 minutes later Robinho was brought down in the area which got another spotkick in the 40th minute when, hit to the left leaving Paraguay Keeper Villar, no chance.
Brazil could easily have added another goal in the second half when Ze Roberto hit the crossbar. However Ze Roberto soon made amends for his earlier miss when he received the ball at the edge of the area controled the ball and curled it beautifully into the top left hand corner.
Striker Roque Santa Cruz quickly scored a consolation a goal back for Paraguay with a header two minutes later.
But this was to be Robinho’s match, he looked threatening through out the game, the supporters were willing him to score and in the 83rd minute they weren’t disappointed when with only Villar to beat, he sent the keeper the wrong way, and slotted the ball home.
The victory was maybe easier than Brazil could have hoped for, the team played well together and had their best match in the qualifiers so far.
Next up for Brazil is Wednesday’s crunch clash with Argentina in Buenos Aires, with the winner guaranteed qualification into the World Cup finals in Germany its bound to be an even more tense match then ever.
