It was Mexico that started the game on the front foot with wave after wave of attack once the game kicked off. Carlos Vela and Hirving Lozano constantly drifted wide to put pressure on the full-backs.
Without Danilo and Marcelo in the starting lineup, Brazil had Fagner at right-back and Filipe Luis at left-back. Mexico had clearly identified them as the weakest players in the lineup and kept using the wide channels to advance the ball forward.
Fagner had a tough time containing Vela with Javier Hernandez also moving to the left to combine with Vela. And when Brazil overloaded that flank to cramp Mexico for space, they sent cross-field diagonal passes to Lozano on the right.
Mexico had three shots in the first 20 minutes alone and it took some last-ditch defending from the defenders to block any shots on goal. However, Mexico’s gameplan was clear as they hustled for every ball and poured forward in numbers to dominate the first quarter of the match.
“We never give up on attacking,” Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio had said yesterday. “Regardless of the structure… We will always have a line-up with five attacking players.”
El Tri had 10 touches of the ball in Brazil’s box in the first 20 minutes alone. Brazil? Zero. That’s how much pressure Mexico had put on the Selecao. But they had no end product to show for it.