12/06/2014 Match of the Day

is there not an element of hope, from your point

They also present. In 2002. Kaka and sonar in the crowd. Away they go. In

sporting terms, it does not get any better than this. They call it the

grated show on earth. The biggest game, the greatest names. Another

World Cup is underway. game, the greatest names. Another

World Cup is Brazil are the only side to play in every single one.

David Luiz straight in with the first crunching tackle. Philip

Neville is alongside me to describe the action for game number one. I

know that you were as blown away as I was by the faces of the Brazilian

players during the anthems. It was a spine tingling moment. Croatia are

able to fire on the first shot, Luka Modric is not wasted once he has got

it. It is overhead, and it is only just wide of the post for Ivica

Olic, coming in. Cracking ball which got back pocket of Croatian

supporters very excited. It is the first time we have seen Luka Modric

in possession of the ball. That is a good, early chance for Croatia.

There are two teams out there. Neymar finds Paulinho, who sets his

sights, and the deflection. Paulinho, local star, Corinthians

favoured before moving to Spurs. I should point out that Brazil in

their final warm up in this city were booed by sections of the crowd

as they beat Serbia 1-0. They do not suffer. The, the Brazilian public.

That was a good ball in and it is turned into his own net by Marcelo.

Croatia have the lead! The first World Cup goal in 2014 is an own

goal. Ivica Olic has started the game well down the left-hand side.

Nikica Jelavic dummied it and let it run, and Marcelo could only look on

forlornly as the ball bounced off him and passed Julio Cesar. That is

the counterattack again from Croatia. Nikica Jelavic miskicked

the ball, Marcelo did not see it coming through. This was not in the

script. Paulinho, pursuing Mattia, kitsch. -- Kovacic. Great ball in.

It just bounced up and away from Neymar. Not quite close enough to

threaten. One thing about this Croatian team, they have got great

experience. Paulinho has done very well. Blasting it straight at

Pletikosa. The throw-in, rather than the corner, this time. The Croatian

manager said in his press Conference, he wanted to stay in the

game for as long as possible and the straight Brazilian crowd. --

frustrate the Brazilian crowd. Neymar keeps his balance well. This

is Oscar. " we're by Pletikosa. -- beaten clear by Pletikosa. Brazil

are coming now. Just get it in. It was a good shot, it was a good save

by Pletikosa, from the rebound. Finding it difficult to pick up

Neymar. They have not lost on opening game of a World Cup since

1934. Away by Dejan Lovren. The first yellow card of the bald cup.

It is shown to Neymar -- of the World Cup. The referee made sure he

showed it to everybody, and the first little flash point of the

World Cup, too. I do not think the Brazilians were happy with the

reaction of the Brazilian players. Do not think that Luka

reaction of the Brazilian players. happy with Neymar, look where his

eyes are. That is what the Croatian players were complaining about.

Rakitic. Excellent work from Ivan Perisic. What a good call for Nikica

Jelavic. Plucked out of the air by Julio Cesar. There is Marcelo.

Oscar. Twice the hold off Ivan Perisic. Tries to poke its rude to

Paulinho. -- it through to. Nice little bit of skill from Neymar. And

the shot, beyond the reach of Pletikosa. The boy wonder, Neymar,

has was 11. A yellow shirted Number Ten scoring for Brazil in the World

Cup finals. It is just right. Ten scoring for Brazil in the World

just announced himself to the World Cup. Oscar did all of the donkey

work. He rode two challenges in midfield. Oscar was strong in the

tackle. This is what he is good at, running at the offenders. Wonderful

finish. -- running at defenders. That is in the only place where

strike Pletikosa cannot reach it. -- Stipe Pletikosa. Dani Alves asks

Julio Cesar to come for that, and look at the Croatian appeals, they

are furious. There was a nudge from Dani Alves. He went down instead,

and the referee has given a penalty. He did not hesitate. He has

been surrounded by furious creations. They are livid with the

decision. It is a booking. Brazil get the chance to take the lead. It

looked like a soft penalty. I do not think there was much tugging

therefrom Dejan Lovren. Fred went down easily. Maybe why the Croatian

players are surrounding the referee. That is what the referee saw, the

hand on the arm. 2-1 Brazil, F Neymar scores. And he does score.

Goodness me. Pletikosa very nearly kept it out. There was just too much

on the shot. A relieved Cafu, and company. They rise around the

ground, Brazil in front. Croatia still protesting to the referee,

talking about the one where Ivica Olic went down at the other end.

Brazil leading Croatia 2-1. He got two hands on the ball, politicos. He

is a relieved man, Neymar. -- Pletikosa. He should be saving

that. He will be disappointed with both goals that Croatia have

conceded. The right rest. Oscar, lovely ball. David Luiz!

GARY NEVILLE: Again, we see Oscar getting a cross in from the right.

The flag is being waved, and more cause for Croatian complaint. We see

it a lot nowadays in football, the goalkeepers get the benefit of the

doubt. David Luiz takes no chances with the

clearance. I think Julio Cesar saw that late.

Good shot! Chance may be full Brozovic. David Luiz was in the way.

It is a nervous looking Brazil now. Four minutes added on. Rakitic is

dispossessed, and Oscar goes on to score! Brazil win their opening game

of the 2014 World Cup! At the bottom of the pile is a boy

from Sao Paulo, in his home city, sending those people home happy.

PHIL NEVILLE: It came after a good chance at the other end for Croatia.

Oscar was under immense pressure tonight, the Brazilian media did not

want him in the starting XI. Similar to the first goal, goalkeeper

Pletikosa went down slowly. He went down in stages. Take nothing away

from Oscar, he has been top draw tonight. And you can really feel the

emotion now. I think you might fancy Croatia to come back from this and

qualify for the last 16. You would strongly fancied Brazil the World

Cup is being billed in this country as the Neymar show, and he has got

it after the start they wanted tonight. There was a scare with that

Marcelo own goal. The penalty given against Lovren gave Brazil the lead,

and Oscar rounded it off. The second game in that group is

tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock. Danny Murphy, the Croatian boss

said, if that is how we start the World Cup, we had better give up and

go home. We talk about respect, that was not respect, Croatia did not get

any. He thought they deserved something out of it. Yes, I think

they were well organised, dangerous on the counterattack, they worked

tirelessly, the two lads in central midfield, Modric and Rakitic, were

outstanding. With a bit more luck from the referee, and their

goalkeeper playing better, they might have got a point. The second

question happens to be an elbows - was Neymar lucky to still be on the

pitch? Yes, he was very, very lucky. If that was any other team, maybe

any other player, then they are seeing red. He actually looks at

him. I know he does not swing his elbow, but he looks at Modric, and

that is why he is guilty. And that is why he is very, very lucky. It

should have been a straight red card. He could have had no

complaints whatsoever. And two minutes later, he gets the goal. I

think the goalkeeper should do better, he should move his feet

quicker, but it is a decent finish. He is a lucky guy. If we are going

to see a lot of sides playing 4-2-3-1 in this World Cup, there is

going to be a lot of discussion about the role of the one. If you

look at the touch maps involving that one, Fred, he touches the ball

seven times in that first half. Neymar had 43. So, what should the

role of the one be? He has too occupied the two centre halves,

staying high up pitch. But for me, Fred looked a little bit off the

pace today. He had an average game, let's say. I think when Scolari look

back at the DVD of that game, he will want and expect a lot more from

the centre forward. But there is more to that role than just touching

the ball? Seven touches! If I am playing in a game with Brazil, and

the amount of possession they have, and I only get seven touches in 45

minutes, I would be asking myself, should I and could I be doing more?

And I think in the first half, he could have. He won the penalty. Yes,

which was there were lots of incidents which the referee got

wrong, unfortunately, and this was the worst of them all. To go down so

theatrically is basically saying that it is not a penalty to me. None

of us believe it was a penalty. Even on first viewing, we thought, that

is not a penalty. And the replays showed just that. Again, the

goalkeeper should save this. It is a poor penalty, he gets two hands to

it. Really, for the first two goals, the goalkeeper has to look at

himself. As players, one reviewer has said, Fred played for the

penalty, the referee has seen their hand on the shoulder... If that is

the case, then you are going to get ten penalties per game, if you get a

penalty for somebody putting a hand on a shirt. And what about the

disallowed goal, where they hard done-by for that as well? For me,

they were, for sure. It has got worse and worse as the years go by,

the protection of goalkeepers. Olic at the back post gets a full head on

the ball and does not even really make contact with the goalkeeper. It

is a great leap and a really good header back. You are asking the

wrong person, because goalkeepers get far too much protection! You go

near the goalkeeper and they get a foul, unfortunately. I think the

referee had a very poor game. There is a lot of this one says, we may as

well hand Brazil the World Cup now if they are going to get decisions

like this. Is it a noncontact sport? Any team that wins the World

Cup will need some luck along the line, and maybe Brazil got theirs

tonight. What was not luck was when they changed their system really

early, he took Neymar off the wing and put him in the number ten role,

and that was good from Scolari. And moved Oscar out wide, and he was the

best player for you? He was, yes. He played the role very well. He looked

very fit, is energy levels were very high. Every time, his first thought

was, can I get the ball into the middle? And he was up and down that

right-hand side, a good ball into Paulinho. First thought again, he is

strong, which you do not often say about him. Strong in the tackle, his

performance I thought was brilliant. What was really good

about Oscar for me was that, like a lot of the Brazilians early on, he

was quite nervy, but he did not let it affect him. He grew in

confidence, and he looked really fit and sharp. This team has been

playing nonstop for four years. Again, from the right, his end

product was really good, and he capped it with a great goal.

ALAN SHEARER: Yes, he thoroughly deserved it. It was very direct,

good, old-fashioned toe poke. You do not see that very often nowadays!

There is very little backlift, and he deserved it, it is an excellent

finish. If those were the positives, there is a weakness which you

highlighted during the Confederations Cup which you still

think is there tonight? The first thought of a defender should be to

defend. Now, it works for them having the full-backs so high, but

it works against them. You're right full-back is able to do this, that

is the great side about it. This is a massive disadvantage, and teams

will try and pick up on it. Look at his position. Now, Thiago Silva has

to come out to fill in the space where the right full-back should

have been. That is the warning. Five or six minutes later, look at Alves,

not where he is! He is a full-back! Croatia, to their credit, spotted

it. They go straight down the left-hand side. Thiago Silva has to

come out to Olic. Again, good ball in.

come out to Olic. Again, good ball did not heed it. Teams will look to

exploit that, because it is a weakness for them. What is also

disappointing is his recovery at times. Sometimes it is as if he was

playing in a friendly. They are going to play like that, no doubt,

because they did it last year in the Confederations Cup. Teams will

definitely look at that and counterattack. You can get at the

Brazilian defence. Moving away from the game, and just taking a look out

of the window, you can see all the red lines of the police cars behind

us. We were hoping that we might report on celebrations on the copper

cabana Beach this evening. But the demonstrations here matched those in

Sao Paulo earlier on today ahead of the game. We can speak to Tim

Vickery, our South American football correspondent. You have lived here

for 20 years and in these demonstrations surprise you, did you

expect more celebration after the win? It surprised everyone during

the Confederations Cup. No one, not even the organisers of the initial

protests one year ago in magic and that hundreds of thousands of

Brazilians would take to the streets during a football tournament to

protest about bubble expending on a football tournament. But after it

happened last year, after a political generation flexed its

muscles, it was more or less inevitable that it would happen

again this time around. We know the protests are about the money going

to the top and not being passed down through society. There are many

things in this protest movement and it goes very, very deep. But one

thing which came out last year, speaking to people and watching them

getting interviewed on TV, time and time again, a new generation is

travelling for the first time. They go abroad and people say, Brazil,

Carnival, sex, Palais. And they think, no, these things do not

represent me. My country and myself, we are about much more than that. I

think that is one message that perhaps the world is learning. All

of the cheap stereotypes about this happy country, full of happy,

dancing people, well, the reality is much more conjugated. This is still

a society which, although making progress, has huge differences in

life opportunities and in income. May be the big legacy of this World

Cup is not so much the stadiums, perhaps it is the protest

movements. You do not have a crystal ball, but would you expect these

protests to be happening every day or just when Brazil are playing?

They are planned for outside the stadium is in every game. How this

pans out, we do not know, for sure. There are two situations that could

make things worse. Number one as police overreaction and brutality,

number two, the nightmare scenario for the authorities is Brazil being

eliminated from the World Cup early. Usually when that happens, millions

switch from the tournament. This time, disappointment with the

performance of the team on the field could throw more fuel on the fire,

and anger at the way that the tournament has been organised. I am

not for one minute suggesting that the referee today was aware of this,

but you do wonder if Brazil will get hometown decisions, even more usual

than in normal World Cups, because it would be able disaster for the

tournament if the home team was to be eliminated early. -- it would be

a disaster. Police cars all the way round the Copacabana beach. You

could hear the helicopters above us as well. It was a travel day for

England as they headed to Manaus I had of the game on Saturday with

Italy. Gabby Logan went as well. -- ahead. Welcome to Manaus, the

gateway to the Amazon. This stadium will hopefully be the gateway to

England's World Cup dreams. They take on Italy at six o'clock on

Saturday. It is mid afternoon right now. The temperature is in the

mid-20s, humidity between 50-60%. It is cooler inside the stadium than it

is outside. England will have arrived from their base in Rio de

Janeiro, pleasantly surprised at conditions. It does not feel like it

will be impossible to play in, for 90 minutes. They will have three

minister take on liquids and make sure that they are hydrated. You can

see these brown patches on the page. We saw a gentleman trying to turn

those little bit more green. -- on the pitch. The surface seems quite

even. I'm sure that when England get here for the first training session

they will be pleasantly surprised compared to the riches that they

have seen. It is a beautiful stadium, the light is fantastic. It

will be dark when England play. It seems like there might have been a

lot of talk about nothing. England are training some distance from

here, and the news is that Danny Welbeck is training as well.

Everything is going in the right direction for Roy Hodgson right now.

Before they travel to Manaus, Gabby Logan caught up with Rickie Lambert.

My goodness, he has scored on his debutant scoring for England at

Wembley against Scotland. Do you know the significance of this? It is

your first ever 90 minutes of professional football for

Macclesfield Town. How the hell did you find this? That would be

telling. It is some journey that has gone on between now and then. To say

the least. It seems like a long time ago. Do you pinch yourself sometimes

when you look around this place and you are on the bus going to

training? I really have. All the dreams I had as a kid it did not

seem like they were coming true, but in the space of one year, they have

all happened. England lead 2-0, Rickie Lambert with the second goal.

You are probably enjoying this more than an 18-year-old 19-year-old.

Definitely. I am glad that my career has worked out like this because I

do not think I would have enjoyed it as much as that age, to get the best

out of all the emotions and excitement. I am made up. Do you lie

in bed at night thinking about what it is like to play in the World Cup?

Like any of us, I have thought about that all of my life. I did not think

that this chance would come to play in the World Cup, but I have got it.

I will make sure that I take my chance and whatever minutes I get,

that is the most important thing, that is when I will be trying to do

my best. We spoke about impact players, will Raheem Sterling be an

impact player, or Ross Barkley? Could Rickie Lamba be an impact

player? In his brief appearances so far he has played with the same

calmness and levelheadedness that he did at Southampton all season. You

know that if he gets a chance he can score a goal, but the great thing he

brings us is the amount of options on the bench, compared to years gone

by. The other thing that impact players is whether you keep it tight

for 60 and then go for it, or the reverse. Nothing has changed.

Substitutes have always been massively important and always will

be. What we have got now when this squad, we have got a bit of

everything. We have got a bit of taste. If Raheem Sterling plays he

is quick, Ross Barkley can run with the ball, Rickie Lambert is not as

quick but he can score. There are options. That is going to be hugely

important. Also in the conditions and with the number of games, you

will see many players rested in the second third game and changed

around. England have got players who can come in and folders positions.

We will have live coverage of England against Italy on BBC One

from 10:20pm on Saturday night. Dan Walker will have all of the news

from a Manaus on Saturday afternoon before the other game that day,

Colombia versus Greece. So, we have seen the hosts in action tonight.

What of the holders, Spain? They kick off against Holland tomorrow in

Salvador tomorrow in a repeat of the final from four years ago. That is a

booking. That is a booking. That was a karate kick. Right into the chest

of Xabi Alonso. John Heitinga, he has got to go. It has broken for

Cesc Fabregas, it is too and raise any ester, that is the goal. Spain

have won the World Cup. People think the Dutch are in danger in that

group, don't they, Danny? It is such a tough group. It is great because

it is exciting for us to watch. I still think with the quality of

Spain, people say that they are ageing but I think they have got

enough to win the group. The others will fight it out. Given their

record, are you surprised that Spain Mark Davis? Because I think what

Brazil did last year in the Confederations Cup, that makes them

favourites. You have got to respect and admire the desire from the

Spanish players to keep on going and be successful. It is absolutely

brilliant. They will be there or thereabouts this time round. Do you

think there is a dilemma when you have been so successful, to

regenerate that squad, even though you have won all those medals, to

say that we're going to have to bring in someone younger? Managers

will always try and evolve the team, even at international level. Spain

have got the philosophy that got them those victories and the

players, like Xavi. They have got a different option in Diego Costa.

Whether he starts not, we will find out. He is a different option than

they have had in the past. Thank you very much to Danny and Alan. The

2014 World Cup is up and running. And on the pitch at least, the home

nation is up and running. Good night. Away we go. They call it the

greatest show on earth. The greatest games, the biggest names. And the

World Cup is underway. It is a good ball in, turned into

his own net by Marcelo. This is Oscar. Neymar, and the shot is

beyond Pletikosa. The referee has given a penalty. He scores. Goal,

Brazil!