Brazilian winger Neymar (L) shoots the ball against three South African defenders. (Photo : Getty Images)
Host team Brazil will look to redeem themselves from a disappointing opening round performance in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics men's football competitions as they face lowly Iraq, who pulled off a draw with Denmark, at the Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha in Brasília on Sunday, August 7.
Brazil, the heavy favorites to take home the gold medal this summer, was held to a goalless draw by dark horse squad South Africa also at the same venue on Thursday in the first round of Group A matches, as per Daily Mail Online.
Even the Seleção's home field advantage, big-name striking superstars in Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, and Gabriel Barbosa, and a red card booked to South Africa's Mothobi Mvala were all not enough for the Brazilians to score a single point against a persistent Amaglug-glug defense.
The star of the match turned out to be South Africa's goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune who had several impressive saves, including two on Neymar and one against Jesus. Brazil had controlled most of the ball possession and had pressured the visitors the whole match, but the ball still could not get past Khune.
Mvala was sent off at the 59th minute after getting booked for successive yellow cards in a span of four minutes, but head coach Rogério Micale's team could not take advantage of it.
Meanwhile, Iraq settled for the same 0-0 draw with powerhouse Denmark in the opening game on Thursday in Brasilia, which had surprised football pundits as the Danish squad is predicted to advance in the quarterfinals.
Denmark team skipper Lasse Vibe almost provided the winning goal right in the opening minutes of the contest, but his shot clanged off the post. From there, Iraq got active and controlled most of the ball possession in the first half of play, NBC Olympics reported.
Head coach Abdul-Ghani Shahad's squad continued to pressure Denmark in the second half and went all out in the final few minutes to try and break the deadlock but to no avail, with the favorites escaping with a share of a point in the group standings.
Brazil are again the favorites over Iraq, but Micale's boys should know better not to underestimate Asiad Asia in their encounter.
The predicted result is a 3-1 bounce back win for Brazil.
Brazil starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Weverton; Zeca, Marquinhos, Caio, Santos; Anderson, Maia, Augusto; Gabriel, Jesus, Neymar
Iraq starting lineup (5-4-1 formation): Hameed; Tariq, Ibrahim Khalaf, Nadhim, Ismail, Adnan; Kareem, Attwan, Abdul Ameer, Husni; Ahmad
