Sunday, 27 March 2011

Brazil 2-0 Scotland - as it happened! Two goals from Neymar, the first a brilliant finish, gave Brazil a comfortable victory over a limited Scotland

Jacob Steinberg

This afternoon we get to find out how old fashioned hustle and bustle fares against samba artistry. Just how will Ramires and Lucas Leiva cope with Charlie Adam? Got you!

This match won't be played in Rio and nor will it be played in Edinburgh. No, instead Brazil and Scotland are hot-footing it to the Emirates Stadium. Apparently Brazil's fans aren't too happy about their side jetting about all over Europe playing friendlies, although speaking as someone who's sat through far too many England friendlies, the further away these games are, the better. In any case, what better venue than Arsenal's ground than the purveyors of Joga Bonito, whatever the hell that is, and the owners of the aforementioned Charlie Adam? That said, Craig Levein has been known to take a leaf out of Fun Bobby's book and play a revolutionary 4-6-0 formation.

There are some nifty footballers playing for Scotland though. Aside from Adam, James McCarthur - not to be confused with his Wigan team-mate James McCarthy - and James Morrison are two smooth midfielders. Kenny Miller once scored a really important goal against Dani Alves. Alan Hutton is the Scottish Dani Alves. Gary Caldwell is always amusing to watch. Christophe Berra has an exotic name. For Brazil, there's no obvious stand-out player. The old fantasy isn't quite there; there's no Ronaldinho, no Kaka, no Ronaldo, no Adriano, no Robinho, not that this lot are exactly a bunch of chancers. David Luiz and Maicon are only on the bench after all. The one to watch out for today is Neymar, the prodigiously talented Santos youngster, Neymar, who West Ham pretended they wanted tried to sign in the summer.

Weather update: It's sunny and hot in north London, as if Brazil needed any more of an advantage.

Brazil (4-4-2): Julio Cesar; Alves, Lucio, Thiago Silva, Andre Santos; Jadson, Lucas, Ramires, Elano; Damiao, Neymar. Subs: Victor, Jefferson, Maicon, Luisao, David Luiz. Sandro, Henrique, Elias, Renato Augusto, Lucas, Jonas.

Scotland (4-5-1): McGregor; Hutton, Caldwell, Berra, Crainey; Morrison, Adam, Brown, McArthur, Whittaker; Miller.

Referee: England's Howard Webb.

On Twitter, TLDORC is imploring me to mention Elano. ELANO.

Craig Levein hasn't shaved. What a maverick. I toyed with the idea of letting my face hair run wild last week, but it was too itchy, so I cracked early on. The shame.

Ronaldo - the Ronaldo - has just made an appearance on the pitch to a fantastic reception. He was quite good. He's also now huge. He has no shame. What a man.

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