Brazil downs a Spirited Honduras in the quarters
An extremely impressive Honduras’s efforts can be easily gauged by the fact that took lead twice, once while they were down to ten and then nine. Honduras conceded the third goal on a controversial penalty kick.
The spectators did not get the chance to watch the traditional Brazilian flair and art of the game.
Honduras earned the tag of giant killer when they beat the Euro 2012 and the World Champions Spain but this time the giant of Brazil managed to earn a win by luck.
In the first few minutes Brazil showed their dominance and had the best passes but it did not last for than ten minutes.
Honduras scored the first goal of the match stunning the Brazilians in the 12th minute.
Roger Espinoza dodged the right back of Brazil Rafael da Silva and from the left he cut back and then lobbed the ball to Maynor Figueroa at the edge of the box. This was not a perfect pass as the ball popped up in the melee but Figueroa managed to volley the ball swiftly over Gabriel and into the far right corner. It was a big cheering goal for Honduras.
Brazil players were simply frustrated. They could not show the artistic passing they are famous for. They started the body game and forced passes.
Around half an hour mark Wilmer Crisanto got two yellow cards meaning a red one and marching order. First he got a yellow car for tackling dangerously on Hulk and after half a minute Crisanto then kicked Neymar in retaliation of the first card getting the second one. Thus Honduras were down to tem men.
Up by one man Brazil shed some of their lethargy but the impressive pinpoint passing was still missing. It took them eight minutes to get even to the ten men Honduras.
In the 38th minute Hulk cross passed the ball to the right wing. There were two Honduras defenders there and the ball could easily have been cleared. Both defenders ran to grab the ball but both of them left the ball for the other in confusion. Thus the ball remained open in the box for the Brazilians. Leandor Damiao seized the ball and slid it home getting the equalizer for Brazil.
At half time it was 1-1.
In the second half even with ten men Honduras gave a tough time to Brazil. Within three minutes Honduras got another stunning goal to take the score 2-1 as Espinoza took a low shot from outside the box and beat the diving Gabriel to put the ball in the far post.
They did not capitalize on the opportunities provided by the Honduras defenders but out of nowhere came the spot kick through a questionable call by referee Felix Brych as Damiao was brought down in the box by Vasquez. Neymar capitalized on the opportunity smashing the ball in the net equalizing the game by 2-2. It was Neymar’s third goal of the tournament.
Infuriated by the decision of the goalkeeper and the ensuing goal Honduras players became more aggressive. But a ten men Honduras could not sustain the Brazilian attack in the 60th minute as Neymar passed the ball after running quite a bit to Leandro Damiao who slammed the ball into the net beating Mendoza. It was Damiao’s 4th goal of the tournament.
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