In the capital of gambling, and in temperatures flirting with 40°, Dorival Jr’s Seleçao had a hot hand against Paraguay, on the night of Friday to Saturday. Under the eyes of Neymar Jr, who had left the poker tables, it was first a question of clumsiness. Like Lucas Paqueta who sent his penalty into the stands of the ultra-modern stadium in Las Vegas (29th). The former Lyon player had hit the post against Costa Rica on Monday evening, (0-0), and we wondered if this Brazil was not cursed.
That was without counting on a vindictive Vinicius Jr. determined to shine, as in this sombrero-grand-pont-center combo (35th) poorly handled by Paqueta. In the process, the Madrilenian took advantage of a deep pass from Joao Gomes to finally open the scoring (1-0, 36th). He then offered himself a double thanks to a winning pressure poorly handled by Alderete (3-0, 45th + 2) and thus slammed his 5th goal in 31 selections. Between the two flashes of Vinicius, Savinho, preferred at the kick-off to Raphinha, had taken advantage of a strike from Rodrygo to score his first goal with Brazil (44th).
“I had a great match”
After the break, Getafe defender Alderete fired a clean shot from 30 metres past Alisson’s post (3-1, 47th) before a courageous Paqueta took charge of successfully hitting his second penalty of the evening (4-1, 65th). At the end of this spectacular match, it was obviously Vini who was elected “man of the match” by Conmebol. “I have always said that I play for the team and for my country, not for myself, commented Vinicius Junior on TV Globo. It hasn’t worked out often, but this time I had a great match, at my level. It was important to put Brazil back in its place and aim for the final victory in this Copa America.”
