Late brace sees Dunga’s Brazil lose to Portugal

TWO late goals from Portugal stunned Brazil and handed Dunga his first defeat as coach.

After a frantic first half, the second 45 minutes seemed to be petering out after several changes, but Simao’s delightful finish with eight minutes to go gave Portugal the lead.

Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho then finished off the five-times world champions with a last-minute strike.

The win will be especially sweet for Portugal’s Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led his native country to the last of those World Cup wins in 2002.

Brazil, seeking a fifth straight win under Dunga, attacked from the start.

Elano went for the spectacular after five minutes, shooting from a tight angle to force a corner from Ricardo.

Portugal’s first chance came from an error, but Quaresma could not control Helton’s mis-hit clearance and Brazil raced to the other end where Ricardo made a fine save to deny Sobis.

Cristiano Ronaldo, handed the captain’s armband, was not having the best of starts.

His every touch was booed by the crowd, and his every move was closely followed by Edmilson who kept him in check in the first 20 minutes.

Portugal’s best chance came when Tiago’s deflected pass fell to Helder Postiga, but the Porto striker’s shot was straight at Helton.

Carvalho headed wide from Deco’s corner as Portugal began to make their presence felt, but it was Edmilson who left his mark on Ronaldo.

Unimpressed by a string of stepovers, the Barcelona man flattened Ronaldo to earn a booking.

There was another let-off for Portugal when Lucio crashed a shot off the bar from the resulting free-kick two minutes from the break.

There was a slower pace to start the second half. It took 10 minutes for a clear chance to come with Postiga stinging the palms of Helton with a driven shot.

Moments later, the same man should have scored with a free header.

Ronaldo, having shown plenty of intent with little end product, was withdrawn in favour of Simao just after the hour-mark.

Brazil struggled to re-ignite the spark they had shown in the first half, but a further round of changes and the introduction of Tinga and Diego brought them back to life.

Tinga sent in a great cross which was inches away from both Kaka and Adriano in the box, and the latter then did well to turn and shoot inside the area but saw his effort charged down.

Portugal made the breakthrough when Helton’s long kick was knocked down and Quaresma crossed for Simao, who scored with an excellent volley.

Then Carvalho got onto a cross from Hugo Viana to send a low shot into the bottom corner.

BRAZIL: Helton, Maicon, Lucio, Juan, Edmilson, Gilberto, Elano, Kaka, Silva, Fred, Rafael Sobis.

PORTUGAL: Ricardo, Caneira, Miguel, Andrade, Carvalho, Deco, Tiago, Petit, Quaresma, Postiga, Ronaldo.

l Leroy Lita rescued Stuart Pearce’s England U-21s against Spain. Two down, David Nugent scored before Lita came off the bench to equalise.