Brazil (0) 1 Firmino 72
Chile (0) 0
Att. 60,007
Entrance: £17.50 Senior
Programme: £5
Mileage: 100/5,786
Played at the Emirates, Arsenal
New Ground: 275
Match Report
It would appear that Brazil and Chile don’t do friendly. From the third minute when Alexi Sanchez was unceremoniously dumped on his own stage by De Souza Dias through to a distasteful challenge from Gary Medel on Neymar, the game was more League One attrition than samba-style South American football.
Dunga has put the smiles back on the face of the Brazilian world-wide fan base after their disastrous World Cup. Eight successive victories have lifted morale beating arch-rivals Argentina along the way and looking mightily impressive in a 3-1 win over the French in Paris on Thursday.
A full house at the Emirates was largely made up of Latin voices as the exiles of the South American countries descended on north London for, these days, a not-so-rare glimpse of their favourites.
Neymar showed glimpses of the quality player he obviously is, but his propensity to tumble a little too easily doesn’t do him any favours and, for my entrance fee money, it was Chile’s Sanchez that stole the show.
England’s representative on the pitch, referee Martin Atkinson, who brandished his yellow card seven times and in a more competitive match could easily have shown a couple of reds, spoilt the highlight of the match when Sanchez wriggled clear of a couple of defenders hacking away at him with the benefit of a Cruyff turn, only to be pulled back by the referee’s whistle to award him a free kick.
Despite Chile being the better side they failed to test Jefferson and it was the Brazilians that finally broke the deadlock after 72 minutes. It took a route one pass from Danilo into the path of Firmino, who rounded Claudio Bravo, to score the only goal of the game.
Nine years after its opening, the match at least offered me the first opportunity of a trip to the impressive Emirates Stadium that has very few negatives. A seat in the lower tier does have the disadvantage, as at Wembley, of having to get to your feet every time there is an attacking opportunity at your end of the pitch but whilst you are seated it is on a nicely cushioned seat.
I was quite surprised that the actual site of the stadium is quite a tight one. As the old Highbury ground just down the road had been surrounded by residential housing, so the Emirates was also restricted and has obviously been further squeezed by new blocks of flats that were built to help with the financing of the project.
Transport difficulties on a Sunday meant that at kick-off time the stadium appeared barely half full and even 25 minutes into the match there were still people arriving in significant numbers looking bewildered as to where their seats might be.
The lush, green pitch leaves you to wonder if anybody has ever trod the turf without having donned carpet slippers; it barely carried a stud mark at kick off time.
If the match didn’t quite live up to its billing, the Emirates most certainly did and at £17.50 who I am to complain.
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