Brazil’s Coach Tite: “It is Absurd to Play on This Turf”

Brazil had to go through penalties in order to eliminate Paraguay in the quarterfinals of Copa America. After a drama at Arena do Gremio in Porto Alegre, Tite’s boys eventually advanced to the semis. There were no goals in the regular 90 minutes.

The critical moment of the match was Gabriel Jesus’ penalty in the fifth round when Manchester City’s striker scored and sent his team to the semis. Previously Firminho managed to miss his chance, but luckily for Brazil, Derlis Gonzales was also inaccurate. At the beginning of the penalty shootout, Gustavo Gomez missed his penalty, and that was the difference between these two sides.

Jesus wanted to redeem himself for missing the penalty against Peru, and he did it.

“Today I did it my usual way, I looked calmly at the keeper, and I could see him moving to the left, and I side-footed it the other way.”

It was a goal which caused the fans to go wild. For two hours, they were under a huge amount of stress, and Jesus’ strike erased that bad feeling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8rI4jcKV3E

But to be honest, Selecao deserved to win during the regular part of the game, because this side completely dominated the pitch and managed to impose its own style of play. Brazil constantly attacked, especially in the second 45 minutes, but the guests from Paraguay were determined to defend at al cost, even if that meant for them not to attack at all.

That is what Brazil’s goalkeeper Allison stated after the match.

“It was a draw but against a team that didn’t want to play unless it was on the counter-attack.”

The statistics will tell you everything about Brazil’s domination on the pitch. In almost every category, Coutinho and the crew were far better than the Paraguayans. For instance, they had 70% of ball possession compared to only 30% of the guests. Goal attempts, 26-5, shots on target 8-1, dangerous attacks 100-28. Brazil had 500 completed passes, while Paraguay had 159.

All this certainly gives you a clear picture of the situation on the field of Arena Porto Alegre.

There is also one more thing when mentioning the stadium. The surface of the pitch was awful. After the match, both sides complained about this, saying that it severely decreased the overall quality of football, and made many troubles for the players to show their full potential.

Gabriel Jesus makes up for his miss, and slots home the winning penalty.

Brazil are onto the Semifinals! #CopaAmerica pic.twitter.com/1LNeRX5IMw

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 28, 2019

This mainly applied for the Brazilian side, which has its own characteristic style of play with short ground passes, and last night, that wasn’t possible.

Tite was very angry at the organizers saying that he hadn’t experienced something like that at such important matches.

“It’s absurd that at this high level we are playing on pitches where it is difficult to control the ball,” Tite stated to the reporters after the game. “Players need three touches to control it. It’s absurd.”

Brazil will face the winner of the match between Venezuela and Argentina. It is very possible to see the old rivalry in the semifinals. Two former World Cup winners with the fantastic current squads would make a huge spectacle.

But first, Aguero, Messi, and the boys need to eliminate the unpleasant Venezuelans.

In the other part of the draw, we will have two very interesting quarterfinals. The first is between Colombia and Chile, which is the ultimate derby of the round. Two strong, cohesive sides who know one another very well will clash at arena Corinthians at Sao Paolo.

The last pair is Uruguay vs. Peru.

A lot of excitement is ahead of us in Brazil.