Belo Horizonte: A towering Paulinho header saw Brazil edge Uruguay 2-1 on Wednesday (Thursday IST) in an ill-tempered Confederations Cup semi-final in Belo Horizonte to set up a final with either world champions Spain or Italy.
Fred scored from close range two minutes from half-time to calm the nerves of the five-time world champions and Confederations Cup title holders after Diego Forlan had first missed a penalty for Uruguay.
But Edinson Cavani levelled three minutes after the restart and thereafter the hosts were rocking before Paulinho rose high to plant a firm close-range header past Fernando Muslera in the Uruguay goal to pull off a barely deserved victory.
What gave this meeting added spice were pre-match comments by Uruguayan skipper Diego Lugano labelling Brazilian starlet Neymar a diver.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) issued a furious rebuttal of the claim, but there was clearly no love lost between the sides as they snapped into tackles and scrapped for every bit of territory.
Brazil made a sluggish start and Lugano was to the fore as he won a penalty for the Uruguayans after 16 minutes.
The veteran defender tussled with Chelsea centreback David Luiz in the box and went down – but Chilean referee Enrique Osses quickly spotted that Luiz had tugged on his rival’s shirt and gave the spotkick.
Uruguay’s record goalscorer Forlan stepped forward but placed his low kick too close to Julio Cesar, the Brazilian keeper diving away to his left to push the ball round the post and elicit a deafening cheer from a 60,000 crowd.
Around twice that number were in the streets, kept out by a police cordon as they joined another protest against crumbling public services and government corruption as well as the multibillion dollar bill for staging major events.
Police said beforehand they expected trouble but Brazil, mindful of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari’s urging them to make their countrymen proud, finally awoke from their nervy slumbers and took the lead two minutes before the break with their first chance of note.
Neymar chased a long punt down the left and stretched to flick the ball across goal for Fred to poke home a scissor kick finish from the edge of the six yard box, sparking pandemonium in the crowd.
By then, Neymar had certainly spent some time on his back — yet the Barcelona-bound 21-year-old was a marked man as Cavani earned a booking for yanking him back.
With four minutes remaining Neymar whipped over a corner from the left and Paulinho outjumped Martin Caceres and seal their place in the final. (AFP)