It was set to be their biggest test of the
tournament so far, but the nerves of the host nation were calmed in the seventh
minute, when a Neymar corner found Thiago Silva amongst a pack of players, the
captain shinboning the ball into the back of the net. Although it had been
billed as the clash of the two number tens – Neymar and James Rodríguez – it
was David Luiz who was Brazil’s standout player. The Paris Saint-Germain
centre-back had set up the first goal, fired up the crowd, inspired his team
with his attacking runs, and it was no surprise that he would be the man to
score Brazil’s second.
More surprising, however, was the manner in
which it was scored. In the sixty-seventh minute, James was cautioned for
tripping Hulk approximately twenty-five metres from goal. A few yellow shirts (los cafeteros being forced by the colour
clash to play in a hauntingly Chile-esque red and blue) milled about the ball,
but there was no pretence about who was going to take it. David Luiz fired
straight into the top right-hand corner to score one of the all-time great
set-piece World Cup goals. He topped it off with the kung-fu kick to the corner
flag celebration pioneered by Dutchman Memphis Depay. At this point, the
Estádio Castelão was in no doubt: a
seleção was into the semi-finals.
But the home crowd were given a scare late
in the match. With thirteen minutes of regulation time left on the clock,
goalkeeper Júlio César hacked down substitute forward Carlos Bacca, with whom
he was one-on-one in the box. The keeper was cautioned for his troubles, and
James converted the ensuing penalty to give los
cafeteros hope of a late comeback, and himself his sixth goal in what was a
stellar freshman tournament. Although Colombia had thought they had equalised
one minute before David Luiz’s goal, only for it to be disallowed for offside,
they were unable to repeat the feat in the final stretch, and the home side
booked their place in the semi-final at Belo Horizonte against the team they
vanquished in the 2002 decider, Germany.
There were a few low points along the way for
the Brazilians. Thiago Silva received his second yellow card of the tournament
for charging down the Colombian goalkeeper midway through the second half; he
will miss the semi-final, which presumably will allow Dani Alves to be slotted
into the defence. The sight of Neymar being stretchered off in the
eighty-eighth minute will no doubt send the nation into a collective panic over
the next few days, but this match proved that o verde-amarelo can win without him playing at his best.
It may be that this was the match that
decided the World Cup – Brazil can win this thing, and so could have Colombia.
There was a powerful moment after the final whistle when David Luiz and James
Rodríguez swapped shirts and embraced like gladiators.
One will go forth to a semi-final showdown with Germany; the other has already spearheaded
his nation to its greatest ever finish and erased the ghosts of 1994.
Brazil 2 (Thiago Silva 7’;
David Luiz 69’) – Colombia 1 (James Rodríguez 80’ pen.)
Cautions: Thiago Silva (Braz.) 64’; James
Rodríguez (Colo.) 67’; Mario Yepes (Colo.) 71’; Júlio César (Braz.) 78’
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