Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio slammed the Brazilian team for their theatrics on the field during their 2-0 victory over his side in the Round of 16 fixture of this year’s World Cup in Russia on Monday.
Brazil started the game on the back foot as the Mexicans played pacey football with Hirving Lozano on the flanks and looked dangerous. But, after 20 minutes, the game slowed down and the Brazilians slowly came back in the game and started grabbing it by the scruff of the neck.
The first-half remained goalless and it was anybody’s game to take in the second at the Samara Arena when the second-half kicked off. But, the five-time champions came all guns blazing and Neymar scored in the 51st minute after finishing off a wonderful move he started with little help from Willian, who also had a brilliant game.
El Tiri boys tried their best to go level and they were kept in the game by their goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who made stunning saves to deny the Brazilians. Trying to play through Lozano via counter-attacks, their game was to hit the Selecao’s on the break but their momentum was broken each time they looked to attack the Allison guarded goal. Brazil’s stars led by Neymar, suffer a lot of fouls and at times it gets out of hand. Neymar has suffered the most number of fouls in this World Cup (23) and today was no different.
The Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi was cautios and awarded the Brazilians a lot of free-kicks and Osorio feels that it disrupted Mexico’s flow.
“Stats say we had 53 percent possession. I think we controlled the game mostly and unfortunately – and it is a shame for football – we wasted a lot of time because of one player,” Osorio said.
“We lost our style in the second half because of the refereeing style. There were too many stoppages,” he added.
In particular, Osorio referred to an incident in the 72nd minute when Neymar clashed with Mexico substitute Miguel Layun on the touchline. With Neymar already on the ground, Layun appeared to step on the Brazilian’s ankle with Neymar writhing theatrically in response. Rocchi decided against punishing either player but Osorio was left angry with the amount of time taken up by the incident.