THE BUZZ FROM BRAZIL
HELLO... GOODBYE
THE Brazilian press have revelled in England’s demise.
O Globo’s front page showed a picture of Luis Suarez with the headline ‘The Lad from Liverpool’. And sports daily Lance had a mock-up of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover with Roy Hodgson, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge walking across the zebra crossing with the headline: ‘Bye Bye’. It was as much as they deserved. TO ADD to the confusion over the first name of Ivory Coast and Newcastle midfielder Cheik/Cheick Tiote, he’s Ismael on official team sheets.
LIGHT BLUE INVASION
PORTO ALEGRE is just a few hours’ drive from Argentina. And guess who play there on Wednesday? Yes, Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Javier Mascherano and Co will sign off from the group stage against Nigeria and the Brazilian authorities are predicting 200,000 Argentinian fans descending on the port city.
JAPAN’S RUBBISH DRAW
JAPAN supporters armed themselves with blue bin bags during their side’s 0-0 draw with Greece . . . to clean the stadium. Fans made sure the Arena das Dunas was left as they found it after the dire Group C clash in Natal. But the bags proved to be dual-purpose and were also used to cheer on their side. BRAZILIAN newspaper Folha had to pulp 30,000 copies after they ran a hoax interview with a Luiz Felipe Scolari lookalike.