Marquinhos strikes late to earn Brazil tight win over Peru
Peru started off brightly with early spells of possession and created some half chances but Ederson was hardly threatened in his goal as Brazil began to grow into the game and stamp their authority.
After their dominant 5-1 win over Bolivia, the Brazilians began to show that confidence in front of goal starting in the quarter-hour mark as Neymar laid a long ball into the box off to Richarlison, who switched it to Raphinha to smash into the back of the net, but the goal was ruled out due to an offside in the build-up.
This didn’t deter the visitors though and they had the ball in the back of the net once again in the 29th minute but after an incredibly lengthy VAR review that took over seven minutes, Richarlison’s goal was also chalked off, as the Tottenham Hotspur forward was marginally offside before heading Danilo’s cross in.
Having two goals disallowed and the time it took for the referee and VAR to come to the decision of the second seemed to have a negative effect on Brazil, who struggled to get going again before HT.
Though Neymar had an effort on goal parried away by Pedro Gallese, the Brazilians went into the break infuriated with the referee.
Peru, like they did in the first half, started off brightly in the second period, playing high up the pitch and with more positivity. Marcos López saw an effort on goal blocked, but his nation looked a lot more dangerous against a Brazil side that took a while to get going.
But once they did, the danger from the attackers such as Neymar, Raphinha and Rodrygo, looked to be too overwhelming for the Peruvian defence as the Brazilians looked like they could score each time they pressed forward.
It looked like the Peru defence had managed to weather the storm from their opponents and were set to earn an impressive point.
That was until the 90th minute when Marquinhos was quickest to react in the box and head in at the near post from Neymar’s corner.
The late goal proved to be the winning one, and ensured Brazil got their qualifying campaign off to a perfect start with two wins ahead of the next international break where they will host Venezuela next month.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Marquinhos (Brazil)
