South Africa’s goalkeeper Ronwen Williams concedes a goal to Brazil’s forward Neymar (right) during a friendly football match at Soccer City Stadium in Soweto, outside Johannesburg, yesterday.
SOWETO, South Africa: Neymar scored a hat-trick as Brazil ended a run of narrow victories over South Africa by cruising to a 5-0 triumph at Soccer City stadium in Soweto yesterday.
A much-hyped friendly between the last and next World Cup hosts lacked bite as the ‘Selecao’ exploited woeful Bafana Bafana (The Boys) defending.
Oscar opened the scoring on 10 minutes, Neymar struck once in the first half and twice in the second, and Fernandinho got on the scoresheet as well.
Brazil had won four previous games between the countries since 1996 -- all by one-goal margins -- but showed no mercy this time.
It was the final warm-up for the 2014 World Cup title favourites before the May announcement of the 23-man World Cup squad. South Africa, who stunned World Cup and Euro title-holders Spain 1-0 at the same stadium last November, were overawed and outclassed.
Coach Gordon Igesund has been branded a ‘dead man walking’ after poor tournament results and this loss greatly lessens his chances of a new contract in mid-year. South Africa gave a first cap to 22-year-old goalkeeper Ronwen Williams in the absence of injured captain Itumeleng Khune with centre-back Thabo Nthethe taking over the armband. AFP
DOHA: China survived an almighty scare before scraping into next year’s Asian Cup on goal difference thanks to a late penalty in their 3-1 defeat to Iraq yesterday.
The perennial under-achievers looked set to miss out on reaching an 11th successive Asian Cup as they went three goals down and rivals Lebanon plundered a fifth goal against Thailand in Group B.
As they stood, China were set to miss out on a berth as the best third-placed team in all the groups, despite starting the evening three points ahead of Lebanon and with a superior goal difference.
But deep into the second half, Thailand’s Adisak Kraisorn scored in Bangkok to make it 5-2, before Zhang Xizhe slotted the crucial penalty in Sharjah that took China to the 2015 tournament in Australia.
The dramatic turn of events, played out within minutes of each other but thousands of miles apart, will have left China’s new coach Alain Perrin in no doubt about the size of his task.
While China heaved a sigh of relief, former champions Iraq were left to celebrate leap-frogging China into Group C’s second automatic qualifying spot thanks to two goals from 2007 hero Younis Mahmoud. Saudi Arabia had already clinched the first berth from the group.
Iraq thoroughly dominated China on Wednesday, with Mahmoud, who scored the winner in Iraq’s 1-0 Asian Cup final win against Saudi Arabia seven years ago, finding the target twice in the first half before Ali Adnan scored their third after the break.
AFP
