The FIFA World Cup 2014 begun in Brazil as fans from all over the world were eagerly waiting 4 years. The opening game had Brazil play against Croatia. Brazil, by far, were expected to win the match comfortably as the skill set of the Croatians were no match to that of their counterparts. Winning the match, Brazil did, as comfortably as they would have expected but it was not without its fair share of controversy. As pointed out in the preview, Neymar Jr. was a hot prospect to watch out for and he didn’t disappoint. He shouldered his responsibility well enough and scored two goals to give Brazil the victory.
Croatia took the lead in the eleventh minute when an Ivika Olic’s shot from the left was deflected into his own net by defender Marcelo. A few chances were created with Oscar’s beautiful shot on goal being saved by the Croatian goalkeeper and another Dani Alves ending up just wide of the cross bar. Brazil finally found their equalizer in the 29th minute as Neymar struck the ball with his left foot from outside the 18 yard box which Pletikosa had no chance saving.
The game went on without incident till the end of half-time. The second half was subject to a controversy, something indigenous to every World Cup game, as Fred backed into Dejan Lovren in the 69th minute that won a penalty for the Brazilians amidst discontent from the Croatian players for such a hapless decision by the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura. This seems to be the trend today, diving inside the box when there’s little or no contact to win an easy goal opportunity. “This was clearly a dive”, argued several Croatian fans. Neymar stepped up to take the penalty and he successfully found the back of the net despite the ball catching the fingers of the Croatian goalkeeper. For everyone except the Brazilians, Nishimura became a villain in disguise that is spoiling the spirit of the beautiful game.
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