Brazil ‘three steps from heaven’, says Scolari

Monday, 30 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

BELO HORIZONTE Brazil (Reuters): Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari said his team were “three steps from heaven” after beating Chile on penalties to reach the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.

The hosts’ excruciatingly tense 3-2 penalty win, after the game in Belo Horizonte ended 1-1 following extra-time, left them three games away from lifting the World Cup for a sixth time and exorcising the ghosts of defeat in the 1950 final on home soil. “We took upon ourselves this mission that we must be champions. If you make a promise you must deliver. This is what the players are doing,” Scolari told reporters. “There are three more (games) to see if we can reach heaven,” he added. Scolari praised Chile, who nearly won with a last-minute shot that cannoned off the crossbar, and said Brazil must improve if they were to keep progressing. “In every match, the difficulties are escalating,” the coach said. Brazil now face the winners of Colombia v Uruguay tie. “The World Cup has show that teams are very balanced. If you cannot exploit one or two or three chances, as we didn’t today, then you might pay the price for that and go out.” Very cordial Asked about tension between the Brazil and Chile benches during the game, Scolari warned he may abandon a new-found patience and revert to a more explosive style. At times, the fourth official had to restrain Chile’s bench, with assistants to their coach Jorge Sampaoli straying beyond their area and gesticulating aggressively. “We are being very cordial, very nice and polite to the foreign teams. But perhaps it’s time for us to change,” he said, alleging someone threw stones at Brazil’s dugout. “They were almost encroaching into our area. It was almost like war, they were waging a battle. I can’t hold it in, I can’t be polite anymore.” Scolari was critical of the mix-up at the back between Hulk and Marcelo that led to Chile’s equaliser by Alexis Sanchez in the first half that cancelled out David Luiz’s early strike, saying it was unacceptable at international level.

Brazil win generates more Twitter traffic than Super Bowl

REUTERS: Brazil’s victory over Chile in an agonising penalty shootout that sent the hosts into the World Cup quarter-finals was more frantically tweeted than the Super Bowl, the social media company said on Saturday. Traffic reached a record pace of 388,985 tweets per minute during the game, beating the 381,605 messages per minute fired during this year’s NFL final, Twitter Inc said in a statement. The peak came when Chile missed their last penalty, propelling Brazil into the quarter-finals. A total of 16.4 million tweets were sent during the match, surpassing the 12.2 million sent for the opening game in which Brazil beat Croatia 3-1. In absolute numbers the Super Bowl was, however a bigger event, with more than 24.9 million tweets. Brazil is one of Twitter’s top global markets.

But he piled the praise on his leading forward Neymar. The 22-year-old striker had a quiet game by his standards but coolly converted his penalty in the shootout. “He’s mature. He has been ready since he was 17 or 18 years old. He is a simple player, he likes playing football. He takes a penalty as if he was playing with friends,” Scolari said, adding that Neymar took a kick on the thigh and will take a few days to recover. “We will do our best to have him on the pitch for the next match,” added Scolari.

Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.