Brazil beat Guinea 4-1 this Saturday (17), in a friendly played in Spain. The goals of the Brazilian team were from Joelinton, Rodrygo, Éder Militão and Vinicius Junior. Guirassy cashed for the Africans.
The game, which had several actions against racism —Brazil played the first half in black, players from both teams sat down before the start of the match as a sign of protest and phrases against racism were everywhere in the stadium— was marked, in the extra field, exactly by an accusation of racial offense.
A personal adviser of Vinicius Junior would have received a banana from the hands of a security guard at the RCDE stadium, on the outskirts of Barcelona, when arriving at the site to accompany the friendly.
Felipe Silveira, who is also a personal friend of Vinicius, was the only black person in the group of four people who arrived at the scene. In addition to him, there were the player’s manager and other assistants, who went ahead. When it was Silveira’s turn to enter, the security guard allegedly shoved a banana into his chest and said “hands up, this is my pistol”.
Protests against racism before, during and after the match were triggered precisely by racist offenses suffered by Vinicius Junior during La Liga matches throughout the season.
On the field, the team, still led by interim Ramon Menezes, started the match with nine players who were in the 2022 Cup — the exceptions in the starting lineup were Ayrton Lucas, from Flamengo, and Joelinton, from Newcastle (ING), who played for the first time with the selection. Brazil had some difficulty creating at the beginning of the match, bumping into the African marking.
In the 26th minute, however, Rodrygo took a free kick from the right, Richarlison headed it in, the ball deflected off Casemiro and the goalkeeper managed to save in the corner. On the rebound, however, debutant Joelinton pushed the ball into the back of the net.
Soon after, in the 30th minute, the African team played badly, Rodrygo stole the ball, invaded the area and scored the second.
With more tranquility, it seemed that Brazil would increase the score at any moment, but Guinea reached the goal. At 37, Guirassy, who plays for Stuttgart, Germany, completed a header from the left. 2 to 1.
But the Guineans’ plans to tie the match were thwarted in the first minutes of the second half. Lucas Paquetá crossed from the right and Éder Militão deflected his head to score the third.
Ramon Menezes took advantage of the scoreboard to promote changes. Bruno Guimarães entered. Raphael Veiga, Pedro and Malcom.
Guinea almost reached the second goal in the 30th minute, with a shot from outside the area, but Éderson made a great save.
Brazil was much more with the ball in the final stretch and continued to be in danger. First Richarlison came face to face with the goalkeeper, but he took a while to make a decision and ended up fumbling. Afterwards, Vinicius Junior made a beautiful play on the left and escaped two defenders, but shot it wide.
Before the end, however, the Real Madrid star had another chance, this time with a penalty, and closed the account.
Brazil returns to the field on Tuesday (20), at 4 pm, in a friendly against Senegal, in Lisbon, again with an interim coach on the edge of the field.
The CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) even takes advantage of the trip to Europe to try to advance in negotiations with the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, currently coach of Real Madrid.
