Nervous moments for Brazil before late goals
After more than 90 minutes of aggravation and exasperation, Neymar and Brazil finally broke through Costa Rica’s smothering defense.
Philippe Coutinho scored in the first minute of stoppage time, and Neymar followed six minutes later to give Brazil a 2-0 victory over Costa Rica on Friday at the World Cup.
Unlike Argentina and Lionel Messi, Brazil is still in a good position to advance to the round of 16. Costa Rica has been eliminated.
“The responsibility is huge when you are playing for the national team,” Coutinho said. “You have to be mentally strong from the beginning until the end. We fought until the end and we were rewarded.”
Neymar dropped to his knees after the final whistle, sobbing in his hands as his teammates surrounded him and then lifted him off the ground.
“We know he had a difficult injury, he went through a very bad patch,” Coutinho said through a translator, referring to Neymar breaking a bone in his right foot four months ago. “But his joy at being on the pitch is contagious.”
A few minutes before the end, Neymar flopped backward to initially earn a penalty, but the contact was so exaggerated that the referee reversed the call after using video review. Neymar then angrily punched the ball a short time later as Costa Rica’s players tried to waste time. It earned Brazil’s biggest star a yellow card.
“The joy, the satisfaction and the pride of representing the national team is a lot,” Brazil coach Tite said, defending Neymar. “He has the responsibility, the pressure. Everyone shows it in their own way.”
Neymar seemed panicked for most of the second half as his shots sailed over the bar or simply missed the mark, and he complained over nearly every call. In danger of ending in a draw, Brazil also seemed nervous but composed itself through the seven minutes of injury time.
SWITZERLAND 2, SERBIA 1 » Albania’s national flag was at the center of the Switzerland-Serbia match.
Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri celebrated their goals during the Swiss victory by making a nationalist symbol of their ethnic Albanian heritage.
Both players put their open hands together with their thumbs locked and fingers outstretched to make what looks like the doubleheaded eagle displayed on Albania’s flag. The thumbs represent the heads of the two eagles, while the fingers look like the feathers.
The gesture is likely to inflame tensions among Serb nationalists and ethnic Albanians. Years of war in Balkans sent many families to western European countries, including Switzerland. The Swiss have dozens of ethnic Albanians in their national soccer program. Serbia’s players did not react to the eagle gestures at Kaliningrad Stadium.
In the tournament’s first come-from-behind victory, Xhaka made it 1-1 in the 52nd minute with a powerful shot through a crowded penalty area.
Shaqiri added the other in injury time after running past the Serbian defense. NOTES » A photo of a scribbled team lineup, spotted in the hands of an assistant coach, threatens to sour the unusually cordial World Cup relations between the England team and its traveling media pack. Four years after the team leadership banned reporters for snooping on closed training sessions in Brazil, the latest prying took place in open training. While counterparts had their lenses tracking the players before Sunday’s game against Panama, the London Evening Standard newspaper’s Jeremy Selywn snapped a piece of paper in the hands of Steve Holland showing players in formation. “Try to keep it to yourself and don’t bring it out to the world, because it’s not going to help us come the later stages of the tournament,” defender Kyle Walker said. “You guys have to do your little bit. So if you could just please help us with that, it would be polite.” … Mexico fans are trying out a new chant so the country’s federation avoids another FIFA fine. Only time will tell, though, whether some of them won’t go back to the old one that got them into trouble in the first place. Standing next to a golden-domed cathedral, Mexican fans visited the sites of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia and practiced a new chant “eeeeeeeeROO-si-ya,” the last part meaning Russia in Spanish that they hope will keep the tournament hosts and organizers happy. The modified version was introduced after national federation was fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,000) for over a chant by supporters considered to be homophobic during the opening game against Germany. Mexico fans use the chant to intimidate opposing goalkeepers. FIFA considers it a slur, but many supporters argue it has no discriminatory intent.