Brazil stroll past Ghana, Messi scores twice in Argentina’s win over Honduras
Richarlison scored twice as Brazil breezed past Ghana with a comfortable 3-0 victory in a friendly in Le Havre, France on Friday.
Brazil’s first-half performance gave fans plenty of reason to be excited by a young team heading into the World Cup when they will bid for a recordextending sixth title.
They dominated Ghana from the start with an aggressive pressing game featuring atacking players Vinicius Jr., Raphinha, Richarlison and Neymar, who delivered two assists.
Marquinh os opened the scoring at er nine minutes with a bullet header from a corner by Raphinha.
Richarlison extended the lead 19 minutes later with a pin-point first-time strike from the edge of the area into the botom let corner.
The Totenham Hotspur forward added the third five minutes before haltime with a clever header from a free kick by Neymar.
“I hope that Brazilian fans believe in me more because here in the national team I score a lot,” Richarlison said.
With victory assured and heavy rain falling in Normandy, the five-times world champions eased off in the second half as manager Tite sent on several substitutes. Antony almost scored the fourth in the 75th minute from a cross from Lucas Paqueta ater a fine combination between the West Ham midfielder and Neymar.
The Paris St Germain forward played the whole 90 minutes as an atacking midfielder.
Neymar almost scored a brilliant goal in the 80th minute ater sprinting past three defenders but sent his shot just wide and he lashed a stunning long-range strike past the post. Brazil play Tunisia in Paris on Tuesday, their last game before their World Cup Group G opener against Serbia on Nov. 24.
Meanwhile, Lionel Messi’s expertly taken double helped seal a comprehensive 3-0 win for Argentina over Honduras in Miami on Friday to extend their impressive unbeaten run ahead of the Qatar World Cup. The Argentina captain scored a goal in each half, his opener doubling the lead given to Lionel Scaloni’s team by Lautaro Martinez early on.
Argentina haven’t lost in 34 matches heading into Tuesday’s game against Jamaica in New York.
With their last defeat coming in the 2019 Copa America semi-final, the thousands of Argentina fans who packed Hard Rock Stadium in a crowd of 64,420 were in an expectant mood and let delighted as a combative Honduran side were firmly put to the sword.
“As far as players who didn’t play, as a coach I have to manage minutes and rest some players. Most important thing is that whoever plays proves they can belong and can play.”
Inother matches, Taremi’s lone goal in t he 79t h minut e helped Ir an st un Ur uguay 1-0, Mor occo t ook down Chile 2-0, and Saudi Ar abia heldecuador to a 0-0 draw
Honduras failed to qualify for Qatar and were under pressure from the off, Alejandro Gomez blazing an early effort over before Rodrigo De Paul screwed a shot just wide.
The south americans were dominating possession with Messi beginning to weave some magic despite being tightly man marked by the honduran defence.
And it was the Paris St.germain forward who started the move which created the opener for Martinez on 16 minutes, an excellent pass freeing Gomez on the let hand side and his cross was tapped home with ease.
Honduras were undeterred, however, and even though they saw litle of the ball, the challenges were flying in, much to the anger of an increasingly irritated Argentina side who were let constantly complaining to the officials.
A pull on Giovani Lo Celso’s shirt however on the stroke of half-time was deemed a penalty by referee Rubiel Vazquez and Messi coolly rolled in the penalty to double the lead for Scaloni’s men.
The former Barcelona star, who played for the full 90 minutes, remained in the thick of the action and almost grabbed his second on 56 minutes but failed to finish off an excellent, free-flowing move when his shot sailed over the bar.
In other matches held on the day, Mehdi Taremi’s lone goal in the 79th minute helped Iran stun Uruguay 1-0, Morocco took down Chile 2-0, and Saudi Arabia had Mohammed Al Owais to thank for avoiding defeat in their World Cup warm-up match against Ecuador in Spain on Friday, which ended in a goalless draw.