Brazil 3-1 Croatia: Neymar scores twice (and escapes a sending off) as Oscar stunner rounds off opening win for hosts

Host nation start the World Cup with a narrow victory
Marcelo own goal gave Croatia a shock lead early on
Neymar could have been sent off for apparent elbow on Luka Modric
Yuichi Nishimura only gave him a yellow card
Barcelona star quickly scored equaliser with 25-yard shot
Neymar scored second from penalty spot after soft award for foul on Fred
Oscar hit stunning third in added time

Brazil v Croatia Match Zone

Neymar was the centre of attention in Sao Paulo and here's his heat map from our Match Zone

Oscar, the man of the match, also scored the goal of the night and placed sufficient distance between these teams to ensure credibility, of sorts. Will it be enough to save this World Cup from the wave of cynicism that overwhelms any event touched by FIFA these days? We shall see.

A tournament that needed a Brazilian win, got one. It also got an outrageously poor penalty award, to the hosts, an equally soft disallowed goal, for their opponents and a dubious decision that kept the poster boy of the tournament and scorer of two Brazilian goals, Neymar, on the field when he could easily have been sent off. The score at the time was 1-0 to Croatia.

So, not a good night for referee Yuichi Nishimura of Japan who will feature in many conspiracy theorists most fevered speculations from here. He was almost certainly useless, not corrupt, but it is true that his three big errors were all to the benefit of one team.

Neymar the Redeemer: Brazil's No 10 strikes a pose after his second goal and looks like the famous statue in Rio

Spot on (just about): Neymar puts his penalty past Stipe Pletikosa despite the Croatia keeper getting a hand to it

Match facts

Brazil: Julio Cesar 6; Dani Alves 5.5, Thiago Silva 6, Luiz 6, Marcelo 5.5, Paulinho 6 (Hernanes 63, 6), Gustavo 7, Hulk 6 (Bernard 68, 6), Oscar 8, Neymar 8 (Ramires 88), Fred 6.5.

Subs: Jefferson, Fernandinho, Dante, Maxwell, Henrique, Willian, Jo, Maicon, Victor.

Goals: Neymar 29, 71 (pen), Oscar 90.

Booked: Neymar, Gustavo

Croatia: Pletikosa 6, Srna 6.5, Corluka 7, Lovren 6.5, Vrsaljko 6; Modric 7, Rakitic 7, Perisic 6.5, Kovacic 6 (Brozovic 62, 5), Olic 6, Jelavic 6.

Subs: Zelenika, Pranjic, Vukojevic, Schildenfeld, Rebic, Sammir, Vida, Eduardo, Subasic.

Goal: Marcelo 11 (og)

Booked: Corluka, Lovren.

Man of the match: Oscar.

Referee: Yuichi Nishimura (Japan) 5.

Attendance: 61,000

Ratings by MATT LAWTON in Sao Paulo

Click here to view our brilliant World Cup Match Zone

FIFA only have themselves to blame, therefore, for this fresh round of slander and negativity. They are now regarded as a rogue organisation – an administrative axis of evil, if you will – and it is a very small step from believing events around the game are corrupt, to thinking the same applies to the game itself.

The need for Brazilian success here has been universally agreed and the disgust with FIFA is now so great, all too many can imagine them facilitating results like any other backdoor deal.

Of course, if FIFA were so desperate to ensure Brazilian progress they would surely not have placed them on a potential collision course with Spain or Holland – both of whom could be a real threat on this evidence – in round two, but logic won’t get too much play over the coming weeks if there are too many repeats of travesties like this.

It wasn’t that the best team didn’t win – they did – but the way it happened left a sour taste. Nobody should be more grateful for Oscar’s late intervention than Mr Nishimura.

Start with the decision on Neymar, the mildest of his three calamities. In the 27th minute, Neymar jumped for a ball with Luka Modric. Before he leapt, however, he glanced across to check the position of his opponent and, when he went up, poked a forearm in his face.

The look was the key. Referees will sometimes let such incidents slide if a collision appears inadvertent, but Neymar knew precisely what he was doing. So did Croatia, who reacted instantly. Nishimura brandished a yellow card but could just as easily have reached for red.

To give him the benefit of the doubt he might not have seen Neymar appraise the situation and merely thought him guilty of dangerous play. It would certainly have been a brave man who sent off Brazil’s hero in waiting in front of his home crowd less than 30 minutes into his first World Cup game, and as we were to discover Nishimura was not about to upset the locals.

Finishing it off nicely: Oscar curls in the third Brazil goal with the outside of his right foot

No stopping that: Stipe Pletikosa looks on as the ball goes past him and into the net for No 3

He's all heart: An emotional Oscar celebrates scoring Brazil's clincher

Soft: Ivica Olic rises above Julio Cesar but the referee gave a free-kick to Brazil and ruled out Croatia's goal

Going down easily: Fred falls under the challenge of Dejan Lovren and the referee gives a penalty to Brazil

A big hug from Big Phil: Luiz Felipe Scolari embraces Neymar following his equaliser for Brazil

Running the show: Neymar (left) is jubilant after scoring Brazil's first goal of the World Cup

Left foot forward: Neymar rifles in a shot from outside the box which sneaks into the corner

Despairing dive: Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa fails to save Neymar's effort from the edge of the box

Oscar did the hard yards, mopping up in midfield and riding two challenges to slip the ball to his team-mate, and there was undoubtedly contributory negligence from goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, who fell with all the grace of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk but it was a priceless moment, nonetheless.

Neymar’s shot did not have great power and it wasn’t struck cleanly, either, but he somehow squirrelled it away, low, into a corner and with Pletikosa going down in instalments as the professionals say, it was enough to level the scores via the inside of a post. This was not the only time the Croatia goalkeeper was found wanting.

For Neymar it was a moment of personal triumph, the first Brazil No 10 to score a goal in a World Cup since Rivaldo in 2002. Yet while his first showed the hosts at their best, the second showed the game at its worst.

Neymar's left-foot shot from 25 yards squeezed past Stipe Pletikosa and into the corner... here's more from our brilliant Match Zone

Long-range effort: Neymar's goal was from well outside the box

Arrowing in: Neymar's shot was powerful and accurate

Contrast: Neymar equalised just a couple of minutes after being booked (right)

Clattered: Neymar is flattened by Vedran Corluka in the second half

Smash: Luka Modric takes one in the face from Neymar during the first half

Elbowed out: Modric goes down after his clash with Brazil's No 10

In trouble: Neymar looks uncomfortable as Modric hits the deck

Cautionary tale: Neymar (left) receives a yellow card for his suspected elbow on Modric

Brazil’s penalty was, undoubtedly, the turning point of the night. It came in the 71st minute and if one positive comes from it this will be the last we see of this referee for a good while. Brazil were on top at the time but labouring. Croatia were not a goal threat but were holding fast at the back and a gutsy draw was beginning to look a real possibility.

At which point Fred – not as exciting a forward as his name suggests, by the way – backed into Dejan Lovren and then fell beneath the merest contact from the Croatian defender. Nishimura needed no second invitation to do the bidding of the Arena Corinthians and pointed to the spot. Brazil’s No 10 did the rest.

There may even be a question over the legality of the Brazil’s penalty. One fluid movement is required of the taker and Neymar jockeyed to the left, stuttered and half-stopped before shooting, but goalkeeper Pletikosa’s hands were not strong enough to resist. He got at least one to the ball but could only divert it into the goal, rather than around the post.

By the time Ivan Perisic had put the ball into an unguarded net, with seven minutes remaining, only for Nishimura to blow for a very soft foul on goalkeeper Julio Cesar, it was wholly apparent the way this match was going.

Shocker: Marcelo (right) looks aghast as his own goal gives Croatia the lead, much to the delight of Ivan Perisic

Unexpected: Marcelo (second right) steers the ball beyond his own keeper Julio Cesar

Thank heaven then for Oscar whose counter-attacking energy and intelligence in putting his shot exactly where Pletikosa had been slow to get down in the first half, at least gave Brazil’s win emphasis. When he assesses the replays nobody owes him a greater vote of thanks thanks Nishimura.

Credit to Croatia, though, they gave Brazil as much of a game as the officials would allow. Coach Niko Kovac deserves enormous credit for sending his team out not to play Brazil, but the 11 players in front of him, some of turned in very ordinary performances.

Given the spine-tingling atmosphere before the game – Brazil’s national anthem carried on a cappella after the band had finished performing, with the players joining the fans in an extra chorus, some of them close to tears with the intensity of it – it would have been easy for Croatia to capitulate.

Samba skills: Neymar (left) tries to turn past Croatia's Ivan Rakitic

Opening clash: Hulk of Brazil (right) and Croatia's Darijo Srna compete for the ball in the air

Nerves: Marcelo (left) and Neymar look pensive during the first half of the World Cup opener

Glamour: Claudia Leitte (left), Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull (right) perform during the opening ceremony

Far from it. They had the initial chance of the game, ordinary from Mateo Kovacic, but the fact it came within the opening minute showed an ambition few had expected. In the seventh minute, Ivica Olic should have put them ahead but buried a header into the pitch and wide but just four minutes later, Croatia took the lead.

It was Olic again down the left flank, skinning Dani Alves and hitting a low cross which should have been finished by Nikica Jelavic at the near post. The Hull City striker scuffed his shot and the ball skidded through to Marcelo who, surprised, could only run it into his own net.

No Brazilian has ever scored an own goal at the World Cup and to do it on such a stage – in front of his own crowd – must have felt calamitous. In the end it will be forgotten, though, particularly if Brazil lift the trophy on July 13. Nishimura’s infamy may take longer to live down.

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