Brazil 3-1 Portugal: 4 things we learned from the match

Last night, Brazil beat Portugal 3-1 in a friendly match held in the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The match held no bearing towards either team’s World Cup campaigns, yet was an entertaining watch. Portugal took the lead through Raul Meireles before Thiago Silva equalised for Brazil. A superb solo effort from Neymar then gave Brazil the lead, and the match result was put beyond all doubt in the 2nd half when Jo scored a simple tap-in to make it 3-1 to Brazil.

Despite it being a friendly, there are always lessons to be learnt from every football match. Here are 4 things to be taken away from last nights encounter:

Neymar is Brazil’s main man

The lanky forward has been an integral part of Brazil’s side for a while now, but last night he showed just how important he is for Brazil’s World Cup chances. He played a part in all three goals that Brazil scored. He set up Thiago Silva’s goal through a corner; the second goal was all down to him. The third goal saw Neymar release Maxwell with a through ball, who in turn passed to Jo. If Brazil are to win the World Cup next year, a lot will depend on the Barcelona forward.

Brazil work well as a unit

With Brazil, the challenge has always been to get them to work together. There has never really been a dearth of talent in the team, but getting these players to play to their strengths while being effective as a unit has been easier said than done. However, Scolari seems to have already earmarked his key players and is looking to build a winning side around them. If they can carry on playing the way they have been playing since the Confederations Cup, they won’t be easy to beat.

Portugal’s defensive organisation needs tweaking

There’s no denying the fact that Brazil were very good on the attack, but they were aided by some very poor defending from Bruno Alves and Pepe. The duo looked to rough Neymar up a bit in order to keep him from exerting an influence on the game but failed miserably. Alves was beaten all ends up by Neymar when he scored his team’s second. Pepe was his usual fiery self but often seemed unable to deal with the Barcelona forward’s raw pace and ability. It’s safe to say Paulo Bento has to work on their defensive organisation.

Portugal will need to build a team around Ronaldo

It’s a well-known fact that Ronaldo is an extremely important player to Portugal, but last night showed just how woeful Portugal are without him. They looked clueless in attack and lacking in any real spark. Portugal don’t have a squad that is full of talented individuals so they will have to build their team and play around the Real Madrid forward. They run the risk of making their gameplay a bit obvious but if Ronaldo is not in the centre of Portugal’s attack, they will undoubtedly struggle.