BRAZIL PUSH OUT COLUMBIA TO MAKE SEMI FINALS
Host of the Olympic Games Brazil shone when they defeated Columbia in the quarter finals of the Olympics.
Brazil hosted the World Cup back in 2014, and then got the Olympics too. They hope to get their first medal in the men’s football event, yet they started on a poor note playing two goalless draws against South Africa and Iraq. Their performance drew serious concern for Brazilian football. They were record winners in the senior category, but had started a very poor run of late. They were knocked out in the group stage of the Copa America Centenario, after a 7-1 disgrace on home soil by Germany at the World Cup two years earlier was already too much to bear. They hoped to win the Olympics and were favourites so the initial group stage performance was disheartening.
The Neymar-inspired side showed their class when they trounced a Columbian side 2-0. Neymar sent in a perfectly executed plan barely 12 minutes into the game before Luan sealed victory just before the final whistle of the game. Columbia defeated Nigeria – the group leaders, in their last group game to qualify for the quarter finals. On the other hand, Brazil made the quarter finals by digging deep to win their last group game. They play Honduras in the semi finals on Wednesday.
Honduras defeated South Korea by sticking to a tight game plan. South Korea had a field day but they failed to break the deadlock, and were punished when their Honduran counterpart shocked them. They fought hard but couldn’t break the Honduran team. They didn’t get enough added time to fight on, ending up frustrated. On the other hand, Germany disgraced Portugal 4-0 and would meet Nigeria in the semi finals after Nigeria defeated Denmark 2-0.
