The opening game of the beautiful game’s biggest stage.
Brazil hosts for the first time since 1950, this is their time to shine, their destiny to be the best in the world on their home patch and time to make a statement to the footballing world.
That’s how the script was supposed to read but no one sent that script to Niko Kovac and his Croatian team. From the off they sat deep and hit on the counter, the Brazilians came forward but played hesitantly as if the expectation was weighing heavily on their collective shoulders.
A hesitant performance was punished in the 11th minute when an Olic cross from the left was put into his own net by Marcelo, who earned the distinction of being the first Brazilian to score an own goal at a World Cup.
That set back seemed to spur the team and the home town crowd on as Brazil lifted their performance. The tempo lifted, they pressed the Croatians hard and played the ball wide at every opportunity to create holes. The extra effort paid off with a long range Neymar shot in the 29th minute spinning away from Pletikosa’s out stretched hand and in off the right hand upright.
From there Croatia slowly gave ground and Brazil discovered their swagger and gradually became the better side. It was unfortunate that a blatant dive from Fred was awarded with a penalty that ultimately led to Neymar and Brazil’s second goal.
The Balkan side still caused the Selecao plenty of problems on the counter but the Japanese referee further endeared himself to the home side when he disallowed a Croatian equaliser for minimal contact on Julio Cesar in the Brazilian goal.
As the Croatians poured forward in a valiant attempt to rescue a point it was inevitable that the brilliance of the hosts would shine through with the extra space they were afforded and Oscar crowned a man of the match performance with an 18 yard toe poke finish to settle the result and launch the World Cup in some style.
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