{"id":1150,"date":"2018-06-18T07:36:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T07:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madhousereport.com\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2018-06-18T07:36:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T07:36:25","slug":"world-cup-five-times-champion-brazil-held-1-1-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=1150","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Five-times Champion Brazil Held 1-1 by Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

Brazil\u2019s bid for a sixth World Cup got off to a slow start as Switzerland withstood an early onslaught to snatch a 1-1 draw\u00a0in Rostov-on-Don on Sunday.<\/p>\n

On the day when holders Germany were shocked 1-0 by Mexico, Brazil\u2019s tag as pre-tournament favourites looked justified in a dominant first-half capped by Philippe Coutinho\u2019s wonder strike to open the scoring.<\/p>\n

However, Brazil paid for their failure to kill the game off when Steven Zuber powered home an equaliser from Xherdan Shaqiri\u2019s corner five minutes after the break.<\/p>\n

The pressure will now be on Brazil to kickstart their campaign when they face Costa Rica on Friday.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Serbia beat Los Ticos 1-0 to move to the top of Group F.<\/p>\n

Coutinho had been handed a central role behind Neymar, on his first competitive game for four months, Gabriel Jesus and Willian in a line-up filled with attacking intent from coach Tite.<\/p>\n

The five-time world champions went about their task of erasing the memories of a 7-1 thrashing by Germany on home soil four years ago purposefully early on.<\/p>\n

Paulinho passed up a glorious chance when his scuffed effort from close range was turned behind by Yann Sommer.<\/p>\n

It seemed a matter of time before Brazil\u2019s pressure paid dividends and the opener arrived in stunning style on 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s record signing picked up a loose ball on the edge of the area and in trademark fashion bent the ball crashing in off Sommer\u2019s far post.<\/p>\n

Neymar looked bright despite his lack of match practice as he teased the Swiss defence provoking yellow cards for Stephan Lichtsteiner, Fabian Schar and Valon Behrami.<\/p>\n

However, Brazil failed to build on their lead as Thiago Silva and Jesus headed off target from dangerous corners and were made to pay early in the second-half.<\/p>\n

Switzerland had offered barely any attacking threat before levelling when Zuber took advantage of a gaping hole in the heart of the Brazilian defence to head home Shaqiri\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n

Forced back onto the front foot, Brazil turned to Neymar for a moment of inspiration but he could only blast into the side-netting before Coutinho sliced wide with a much simpler opportunity than the one from which he opened the scoring.<\/p>\n

Brazil were unhappy that Zuber wasn\u2019t penalised for a slight push on Miranda for the equaliser and felt hard done by again when Jesus tumbled under a challenge from Manuel Akanji inside the area with Mexican referee Cesar Ramos unmoved.<\/p>\n

Tite\u2019s men ended as they had begun with a series of chances for a late winner as Neymar and Roberto Firmino headed straight at Sommer before Miranda dragged a shot inches wide.<\/p>\n

And deep into stoppage time Schar\u2019s outstretched leg turned a goalbound effort from Silva wide as Switzerland held out for a vital point.<\/p>\n

AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil\u2019s bid for a sixth World Cup got off to a slow start as Switzerland withstood an early onslaught to snatch a 1-1 draw\u00a0in Rostov-on-Don on Sunday. On the day when holders Germany were shocked 1-0 by Mexico, Brazil\u2019s tag as pre-tournament favourites looked justified in a dominant first-half capped by Philippe Coutinho\u2019s wonder strike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[965],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-world-cup-brazil-held-1-1-by-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}