Brazil too hot for Zimbabwe

Jun 03, 2010 |

Harare

Brazil weathered a Zimbabwe storm before scoring twice late in the opening half to set up a 3-0 victory on Wednesday in a World Cup warm-up game here.
It was easy in the end for the team ranked first in the world against one that does not even feature among the top 100, but the South Americans stamped their authority only after surviving several goalmouth scares.

There will be one more African safari for the Brazilians, against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam next Monday. Left-back Michel Bastos converted a free-kick on 41 minutes, Robinho snatched an opportunist second three minutes later and Elano grabbed a soft third goal 11 minutes into the second half.
Zimbabwe, who have never qualified for the World Cup, were stroking the ball about with the same aplomb as the five-time winners.
They came close again when livewire striker Knowledge Musona won a goalmouth aerial duel only to be denied by a diving parry from goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who had replaced Julio Cesar a few minutes earlier.
Warm-up games do carry the risk of injuries and Brazilian hearts pumped a little faster 10 minutes before half-time when star midfielder Kaka briefly clutched his right leg after a hard but fair challenge.
— AFP

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