Brazil flirt with boom and bust

Shortly after Brazil’s dour scoreless draw with Mexico last week, a gang of kids lit a firework on a wide stretch of the pavement on Rua Das Laranjeiras in Rio.

Passersby paused to watch the show which, initially, was very pleasant: a couple of satisfyingly loud bangs and colourful sprays erupting overhead in the night sky.

But this turned out to be merely the misleading prelude. The unexpected climax, when it came, had those close by running for cover and many more emerging out of their apartments and businesses to see what the hell was going on, as a thunderous explosion sent rockets flying in all directions, one of which — trailing a luminous green tail like a comet — whizzed just a few feet above ground level across four lanes of traffic, narrowly missing two girls walking on the opposite side of the road, before slamming into a wall.