Brazil v. Italy 2-0 10/Feb/09

The "long unbeaten run," as Dominic Raynor put it, took place today at the Emirates when a dazzling performance by the South American side outclassed the Europeans in what was called the "World's Derby."
The truth is that I have been expecting this match for some time and what better ground to make it happen than the Emirates. The four times World Cup winners against the most successful squad in the world. A match highly expected and bloated in controversy with Amaury switching sides, Lippi's starting XI, Goal.com's initiative to bring Maldini back and finally Robinho, Kaká and friends.

Last match for Brazil took place in the most disastrous of fashions with Dunga's side getting beat off 6-2 against rivals Portugal. Italy instead, by the new rule of World Cup Winner Marcello Lippi has kept their pace as top leaders in their qualification group enjoying a good advantage from their closest persecutor.





And it was Andrea Pirlo who pulled the strings for the Italian team most of the mach, having made a goal pass to Grosso which was dissallowed as early as 4'. As Davie Provan put it, in the Sky Sports broadcast, "[it was] a delightful finish." And indeed it appeared to be onside but the diference was too narrow that the benefit of the doubt ahould be given to the referee.
One aspect that Martin Tyler mentioned was the current level of expectation from the English audience on the English v. Italy matches in the knockout stage of the UCL, that you will have in a week's time. And Brazil managed, through their midfielders and fullbacks, to acquire possession in such level that the Catenaccio was starting to show up on the Italian scheme. But Elano's brace was enough to give Brazil the lead after twelve minutes, a lovely finish with the distracted Italian centerback.
The problem for the Italian team was the wide players that were arranged; Brazil dispossessed the Italians very quickly due to the fact that the only static midfield player was Andrea Pirlo, while Brazil played with two or three connected players in tight spaces.
Far from being brilliant Montolivo's first half was all but brainy, letting, in some cases, Brazilian fullbacks to reach three-quarters in the pitch to later shot, as Maicon at 25'. And Robinho, one of the spolied kids of this blog, did a brilliant definition after stealing the ball and after a handful of tricks he managed to shot, and it was two-nil up for the Brazilian side. Pirlo was dispossessed and commonly this kind of things happen to the best player of an outclassed team. And it was the couple from Manchester based Brazilians who provided the show for Brazil that evening at the Grove.
Between the few attempts made by Italy, aside from the earlier disallowed goal, came with De Rossi shot at 32'. With the minutes passing Elano made a thunderous shot that past just above the bar.
Aside from that the crowd in London was superb; each play from either side was hailed and even Robinho who scored against Arsenal away in the current season, took many applausses.





The second half went more calm, with the prospect of a real friendly match. We could watch the introductions of Aquilani, Rossi and Toni, but nothing extraordinary came from them, at leat reaching the 50th minute mark. Lippi's reluctance to play a competitive side, not risking anyhting, brought a mixture of several different lineups that could not be managed to do in any other match. Even with some Italian attempts towards Brazil's goal, such as Toni's chance at 62th, the match grew in favor for the Italian side. Reaching the 71st minute, Brazil showed little or no interest in making another goal, even when the South Americans arrived in many times at the Europeans' side. With some harsh tackles and several attempts the match ended calm enough even to Brazil's goal, which was threatened by several late attempts saved by Julio Cesar.