PHILIPPE COUTINHO made sure Brazil avoided the same fate as Germany with a dazzling display for the five-time winners.
The Barcelona ace destroyed Serbia with his pinpoint passing, setting up a brilliant opener for Paulinho before Thiago Silva headed a second for the samba stars from Neymar’s corner.
So it was no surprise to see him get a standing ovation at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium as Brazil booked a last-16 clash with Mexico as group winners.
Tite’s men did not have the greatest of starts, with left-back Marcelo forced off after suffering a back spasm.
Brazil had questions to answer after limping through their first two games and were quickly on top.
But it took them 25 minutes to have a shot on target, when Neymar linked with Gabriel Jesus to test the reflexes of Vladimir Stojkovic.
Brazil had their breakthrough in the 36th minute when Coutinho caught the Serb defenders napping with a simple but brilliant dinked through-ball.
Spurs reject Paulinho, now at Barcelona, got there in time to chip Stojkovic.
Serbia, needing to win to qualify, gradually started to exert some pressure but the closest they came was when Miranda sliced an attempted clearance over his own crossbar.
Brazil survived a big scare when from PAUL BROWN