Brazil Dominate Guinea in Barcelona : Brazil secured a first victory since their quarter-final exit at the 2022 FIFA World Cup as a debut goal from Joelinton helped the Seleção to a 4-1 triumph over Guinea in an entertaining friendly at the RCDE Stadium in Barcelona.
Having tasted defeat in three of their last four outings, the five-time world champions knew a positive response was needed as they came up against Guinea in the first of two friendlies with African opposition in Spain – matches organised as part of Brazil’s anti-racism campaign in support of Vinícius Júnior.
Despite fielding a star-studded line-up, the Seleção looked somewhat disjointed during the opening 20 minutes, as the National Elephants settled comfortably into the contest.
That all changed shortly before the half-hour mark however, when Joelinton reacted fastest inside the six-yard box to tap home his first international goal.
Spurred on by the opener, Brazil doubled their lead just three minutes later in brilliant fashion, as Rodrygo pounced on a loose ball in the right channel before racing towards goal and firing an unstoppable strike beyond Ibrahim Koné.
Desperate to stem the Seleção’s momentum, Guinea regained some semblance of composure before HT, and halved the deficit through Serhou Guirassy; the Stuttgart forward directing a clinical header into the bottom-right corner.
Determined to regain control of proceedings, Brazil emerged after the restart with renewed focus, and quickly restored their two-goal cushion as Éder Militão rose highest to guide a sublime Lucas Paquetá delivery into the far corner.
That goal settled any lingering nerves for the third-ranked nation, with Richarlison going close to adding a fourth before the hour mark, only for Koné to thwart the Tottenham striker with an excellent diving save.
Armed with the momentum, Brazil continued to look the more threatening of the two teams in the final 20 minutes, as both managers turned to their respective benches in an attempt to freshen things up.
While Guinea showed signs of improvement in an end-to-end finale, it was Brazil who added late gloss to the scoreline with Vinícius Jr netting somewhat fittingly from the spot to seal a morale-boosting victory for the Seleção, while extending Guinea’s poor recent form in friendlies to four without a win (D1, L3).
Discussion about this post