Lucio stayed away Jesus Christ Ronaldo
Portugal and Brazil fought to a scoreless tie, with both teams moving on to the World Cup’s knockout round. Brazil ultimately won Group G, taking first place. The Selecao played superior football throughout the game despite missing important players Kaka, Robinho, and Elano. However, their underpowered assault lacked confidence.
Brazil topped the group with seven points, two more than Portugal’s five, having already guaranteed themselves a spot in the round of 16. In the following round, the five-time world champions will play fellow South Americans Chile while Portugal will face the European champions Spain.
Both teams were avidly seeking an early goal as the game got underway. The finest opportunity for Brazil came in the 30th minute when Nilmar, who was coming on for Robinho, saw his close-range effort saved by Eduardo of Portugal.
After meeting a beautiful cross from Maicon nine minutes later, Luis Fabiano, who scored twice against Ivory Coast, glanced a close-range header just wide.
The Portuguese depended on the presence of winger Cristiano Ronaldo, who appeared particularly threatening each time his team staged a counterattack. Brazil outplayed their opponents in a game that was exceedingly physical.
The finest opportunity for Portugal came in the 60th minute, when Julio Cesar narrowly missed a shot from Raul Meireles following a signature run by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both teams let up in the latter stages of the game, appearing content to settle for a goalless draw. Brazil had the better overall performance of the two teams, but they were unable to generate as many chances for goals as they would have wanted.
While everything was going on, Chile suffered its first South American defeat at the hands of Spain, which triumphed 2-1. After giving up goals to Andres Iniesta and David Villa in the first half, Rodrigo Millar’s spectacular goal gave Chile the lead early in the second half.
With the same number of points as Spain but a worse goal difference, Chile placed second in Group H. They made guaranteed that all five South American teams advanced to the World Cup’s round of 16.
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