fred grabbed his first international brace to help brazil overcome ıtaly in salvador. dante had opened the scoring for the hosts with emanuele giaccherini levelling matters for gli azzurri.
neymar's fantastic free-kick and a powerful fred effort restored and increased the hosts' advantage before giorgio chiellini pulled a goal back late on. fred wrapped up the match, and the group, with a goal moments before the final whistle.
brazil dominated proceedings in the first half with a large majority of the ball, but they failed to convert their possession into meaningful opportunities. the only notable action in the first half saw brazil take the lead in first-half stoppage time.
neymar whipped in a free-kick which was headed goalwards by fred. buffon pushed the ball out as far as dante, who had the simple task of applying the finish. ıt was the bayern munich defender’s first international goal and hit gli azzurri with a sucker punch just before the half-time whistle.
after the break, brazil continued to dominate possession but it was a bolt from the ıtalian blue that saw cesare prandelli’s side draw level. mario balotelli brilliantly flicked on to the advancing giaccherini and the substitute galloped clear of the brazil defence before driving an arrowed shot past julio cesar.
ıtaly were not level for long, thanks to brazil’s no10. neymar was felled by christian maggio in a dangerous position on the edge of the ıtalian box and the former santos man stepped up to power a magnificent effort past a helpless gianluigi buffon.
fred then extended the hosts’ advantage. he used his strength to shrug off a challenge by giorgio chiellini before composing himself and slamming a left-footed shot past buffon.
chiellini then made amends by pulling a goal back following an antonio candreva corner, but brazil's no9 rubberstamped the victory as he followed up a buffon parry from a marcelo shot.
ıtaly had applied some pressure in the closing stages but fred's first international brace helped his side secure top spot in group a, meaning they will play group b’s runners up on wednesday in belo horizonte.
