Brazil have narrowly beaten Croatia 1-0 in their Group F encounter in Berlin’s Olympiastadion.

Brazil came out of the traps straight away, and looked likely to open the scoring in the opening minutes, but Croatia defended well and showed their attacking acumen themselves, with Dado Prso forcing Dida into action.

Croatia forced a corner in the 7th minute that was caught well by Brazilian keeper Dida, who immediately threw the ball out for a Brazil attack which momentarily outnumbered the Croat’s, but they came back in numbers to defend safely.

Roberto Carlos had a long-range effort saved by Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikose, with just a minute later having to dive well to save a shot from outside the area.

Croatia were showing no signs of being over-daunted by Brazil, and made some decent attacks of their own with Prso making some very good runs up the left-wing.

Although Brazil always threatened to score, their chances in the first-half were fewer than most expected and at times looked uninterested in formulating an attack, preferring to walk through the play.

Niko Kranjkar came close to scoring after a Croatian break, but shooting from too far to trouble Dida had it been on target.

Kaka was hauled down by the Croatia captain Niko Kovac, but the resulting free-kick taken by Ronaldinho was unconvincing and Croatia eventually harried the ball away.

Kovac then came off the pitch to be treated for a knock in the ribs and, during the time that the captain was off the pitch, Croatia were awarded a free-kick, which was taken by Darijo Srna and was placed into the box, just inches away from the head of Igor Tudor.

Kovac was substituted for Jerko Leko just before half-time

Brazil’s veteran captain Cafu had a shot straight at Pletikosa and as the last minutes of the half progressed, and with both teams seeming content with the scores being level at half-time, Brazil’s Kaka found just the smallest amount of space in the Croatian defence and made them pay with a lovely curling shot from 20-yards, past keeper Pletikosa.

Croatia came out for the second-half with renewed determination with Kovac and Prso both testing Dida in the opening ten minutes.

Ronaldo, who looked out-of-sorts throughout the match, tried a speculative 25-yard shot that never troubled Pletikosa, but Brazil started to realise that there was no way that they could rest on their one-goal advantage after some uncharacteristic defensive mistakes.

The Brazil captain then delivered a perfect cross for Ronaldinho to head in, but Pletikosa, who was having a fine game, saved well.

Croatia then went on the attack, with Dida being forced into three saves in a short period of time, but all the shots were aimed directly at him.

Kaka had another long-range attempt in the 72nd minute, but was wide.

Brazil, even though they had the advantage in possession, found that they had no space to play and were constantly harried by the Croatian’s, with attacks on the break, and Dado Prso playing an immense role for the Europeans.

Brazil killed off the game, with very little space given to Croatia, but still Croatia pursued an equaliser.

A last-gasp

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