Brazil dashed Chile’s World Cup dreams with a convincing 3-0 victory in Round of 16 action Monday in Johannesburg.
Juan, Luis Fabiano and Robinho scored the goals for Brazil, while keeper Julio Cesar shut the door on all three of Chile’s shots on goal.
Chile came into the tournament as a dark horse and led Group H, along with Spain, in the group stage to advance to the Round of 16 for the first time since 1998.
But Brazil was simply too dominant and have now outscored Chile 28-3 in their last seven international matches.
Despite playing back-and-forth soccer with Chile for a good portion of the first half, Brazil finally broke through in the 34th minute when Juan converted a Maicon corner kick.
Juan’s goal seemed to spark the Brazillian offense, as they went ahead 2-0 only three minutes later.
After demonstrating some brilliant ball movement, Kaka sent a through pass to Luis Fabiano who managed to hurdle past the rushing keeper and kick it into the vacant goal.
Brazil put things on lockdown in the second half, shutting down the Chilean offence while moving the ball forward on the counter attack.
This paid dividends in the 59th minute after Ramires picked up the ball at midfield and ran uncontested for 35 yards through the Chilean defence before dishing off to Robinho who curled a low shot past the keeper and just inside the post to put Brazil up 3-0.
Brazil will move on to play the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on July 2 after the Dutch took down Slovakia 2-1 earlier in the day.
