Away wins in South American World Cup qualifying are hard to come by, but Brazil were at their best in Montevideo on Thursday night. The Seleção conceded an early penalty, but fought back to record a comfortable 4-1 win over Uruguay.
Brazil virtually secures 2018 World Cup qualification with impressive win away to Uruguay
Neymar had a goal, but Brazil’s victory was a complete team performance.
Photo by Pedro Vilela/Getty Images
Neymar got on the scoreboard with an impressive individual effort, but the man of the match was Paulinho. He scored an absolute screamer to pull Brazil level in the first half, turned in a rebound for the game-winning goal early in the second half, then completed his hat trick in stoppage time.
There are still five rounds remaining in CONMEBOL World Cup qualification, but Brazil won’t have too much to worry about. This was one of their last difficult matches — Brazil has already played Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Chile away from home. They’re now 10 points ahead of the team in the final qualifying spot and seven points clear of their next-closest challenger.
Edinson Cavani drew a penalty in the opening minutes and converted from the spot, but that would be the last thing that went right for Uruguay on the night. Just 10 minutes later, they conceded this goal — perhaps the best Paulinho has scored in his career.
One reason that a good result was far from certain for Brazil on Thursday was the absence of young Manchester City star Gabriel Jesus. He’s been the perfect forward for Neymar to combine with, and without him, Brazil’s attack hasn’t looked as potent. But Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino filled the role well, helping to set up Paulinho’s second goal.
After giving up that go-ahead goal to Paulinho, Uruguay had to push forward aggressively, and they got caught out by an excellent long ball over the top of their defense by João Miranda. None of the Uruguayan defenders were any match for Neymar in an open field race.
With time winding down, Paulinho netted his third, chesting in a cross from Dani Alves in the 93rd minute to add an exclamation point.
Now, Brazil manager Tite will have some room to experiment. He probably wants to make sure that his team’s qualification is mathematically secure before he gets too wacky with his lineups, but it would take an unprecedented meltdown for Brazil to miss out on a trip to Russia now. They’ve got the job done, and can now focus on building a team for 2018, rather than worrying about getting immediate results.
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