It’s not like watching Argentina

A SIZZLER of a Sunday in Munich, although that had more to do with the scorching weather than the fairly modest amount of heat generated by the boys from Brazil.

They say you should always beware a team that can win ugly. Well, no-one is saying that Brazil are doing that in this World Cup — in football terms, the accusation would border on the libellous — but what they are doing is winning routinely, even mundanely. And so much more was expected of them than that.

Yesterday’s 2-0 victory over Australia in an Allianz Arena ablaze with 66,000 fans in yellow, means that Brazil are the first team to have secured their place in the knockout stages from Group F. And short of Japan springing a surprise against them, it looks as if Croatia and Australia are set up for a death or glory decider in Stuttgart on Thursday.