Brazil 2 Serbia 0: Richarlison scores stunning double including best goal of tournament in perfect World Cup 2022 start
APPARENTLY Brazil have worked on ten choreographed dance routines to celebrate their World Cup goals.
Well if Richarlison carries on like this, they’ll need to rehearse a few more before the end of the group stages, never mind the knockout ones.
The man who can’t get a start at Spurs showed exactly why it is he, not Neymar, who is the golden boy of Brazil to so many with an opening-game double.
When you consider Neymar, Vinicius junior – remember him, Liverpool fans? – and Raphinha could have finished with at least a couple apiece, you’ll get an indication of how the favourites were frankly in a league of their own.
If the Jolly Green Giant, AKA Serbia’s colossal keeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, hadn’t been in the form of his life, they would probably have reached double figures already.
As it is, that brace from Richarlison will do very nicely for starters. The celebrations may have been a long way off a ten from Len, but they’ll have them off pat before long, believe me.
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To every Premier League fan, of course, it is Neymar who is the heart of this most famous of footballing nation’s team. The reality, though, is totally different.
It is Richarlison’s attitude, Richarlison’s influence and - most of all – Richarlison’s finishing which make HIM the focal point of things.
And it is that last point which showed his dream of beating Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane’s Golden Boot-winning haul of six from Russia 2018 may soon become a reality.
What a contrast, incidentally, to the two opening fixtures for the two Spurs pals.
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Kane, for all England struck six in whipping Iran, drew a blank and ended up needing a scan that gave the whole country a scare.
Richarlison gave a masterclass in both old school poaching and flying finishing for the cameras with his Serbia-stuffing pair as well.
The first was cruel luck on Vanja because it came after the keeper had produced yet another magnificent full length block to deny Vini Jnr.
But there was Richarlison, pouncing like a dog on a slice of dropped ham, to prod in the rebound and send this Lusail Stadium crowd into raptures.
They had been waiting long enough. There were probably an increasing number wondering whether they would actually get to celebrate a goal from their heroes at all, so stubborn was the Serb defiance.
But you know what they say about London buses and all that? Well clearly the same goals for Brazilian goals.
Because before we knew it, the Samba stars had doubled their advantage, the points were signed and sealed, if not yet delivered, as the same man pounced again.
And if his first was anything but the finest example of the beautiful game from the archetypal purveyors of it, then the second most definitely was.
Again Vini Jnr was the provider, with a burst of speed down the left flank that has become his trademark just one game into Brazil’s competition.
When he prodded the ball into the danger area, RIcharlison’s first touch sent it spinning into the air – and his second was a magnificent overhead volley which arrowed into the corner,
Nothing that Vanja, even at full length, could do about that. And to be honest, it had to be something special or something point blank to get the better of him here.
True, the quickfire fist he threw up to stop Neymar’s wickedly delivered corner from curling straight in was routine. Certainly compared to the last of his heroics.
A chance, incidentally, that was entirely deliberate given half the Brazil team seemed to be practising it at their Al Arabi training base the other day,
But there was nothing standard about the lightning dart from his line to paw another from the feet of Vinicius after the most delicious of slide rule deliveries from Thiago Silva.
Mind you, had Raphinha’s finishing been anything like the approach work from his team-mates, this game could have been done and dusted before half-time.
The most glaring of the ex-Leeds man’s misses was a tame half-volleyed sidefoot that was nothing like the same class as the one-two with Richarlison that created it.
And the longer it went on, the more you began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the five-time champions were going to draw a blank – as cruel as it would have been on them.
Certainly it started to look that way when Alex Sandros finally got one past Vanja only to see his effort thump back off the woodwork,
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Clearly Roberto Carlos isn’t the only full back to pull on the famous yellow shirt who can strike a ball from distance.
As it is, though, the dam finally cracked. Richarlison made sure of that. Fantastic finishing all round…but boy, those moves still need working on.
