Marquinhos and Paquetá lamented the goalless draw between Brazil and Costa Rica in the first round of the 2024 Copa América. At the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles (USA), the Brazilian National Team accumulated chances throughout the 90 minutes, but was unable to open the scoring.
The defender even shook the nets in the first half, after a free-kick, but the play was invalidated by VAR, which verified that the number 4 shirt was in an offside position. The 2019 tournament champion, Marquinhos analyzed the team’s performance defensively and offensively.
“We wanted a win here, but we knew the game plan would be like this. They were behind, waiting for a mistake to counterattack with a long ball. We had a good press-lose dynamic, we stole some balls in the opponent’s half,” he explained.
“On the offensive part, we were able to create as well, play the ball from one side to the other. It’s up to us to create alternatives so that we can have clearer opportunities and score goals, because the result is very important in this competition,” he added.
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Paquetá came close to opening the scoring in the second half. He shot hard from outside the area, but the ball hit the Costa Rican goal post. In addition to the chance of the midfielder and Marquinhos, Brazil posed danger with shots from Bruno Guimarães and Guilherme Arana.
Despite the missed opportunities, the number 8 shirt praised the performance of his teammates and reinforced that the National Team “is on the right track”.
“I’m very frustrated that we didn’t get the positive result, but we continue with confidence because we’re on the right track. We played well, did what was trained. It’s to rest, concentrate, prepare better so that we can define these goal plays and achieve the victory,” he highlighted.
Brazil will take the field against Paraguay on Friday (29th), at 10pm, at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (USA), for the second round of the Copa América. In the previous match, the Paraguayan team was defeated 2-1 by Colombia, the Yellow’s opponent in the last match of the 2024 Copa América group stage.
