Brazil knock-out Ghana 3-0 to grab quarter-final place

June 27, 2006Brazil are through to the quarter-finals of the Fifa World Cup after a comfortable 3-0 win over Ghana, Tuesday.



Ghana seemed to dictate the style of this match; with their defensive back four near to the half-way line Brazil was kept out of shooting range. While Ghana could not stop the reigning champions scoring on three counter-attacks they achieved slightly more ball possession and shots on goal over the game.

The Africans out shot the South Americans 18:11 but were not very accurate, often wide from long range. Brazil looked much more deadly going forward and got ten out of their 11 shots on target.

Ratomir Dujkovic's team's offside trap was brittle and beaten after just five minutes. Kaka sent Ronaldo sprinting through. The forward did a step over in front of Richard Kingston and put in his fifteenth World Cup goal, his third in this championship - a total which surpassed the German Gerd Müller as the highest scorer in the history of the World Cup.

Another counterattack before half time led to Adriano's tap-in from Cafu's low pass across goal.

Ghana came closest to a goal when John Mensah headed a corner straight down at Dida's feet. The Brazilian keeper reacted quickly to save and kick the ball out of harm's way.

The third goal was from a simple long ball from full-back Ricardinho over the Ghanaian defence. Ze Roberto ran on to it and nicked it by the on-rushing keeper Kingston and coaxed it over the line.

At this point in the match the Brazilians had received boos from some of the crowd who thought football's traditional crowd-pleasers were deliberately playing within themselves.

But as the clock ran down there were a number of exciting Brazilian attacks and Richard Kingston had to make three outstanding saves to keep the score respectable for Ghana.

Asamoah Gyan was sent off when he got a second yellow card for foul simulation.

In the next phase Brazil would play against France, in a game held in Frankfurt on July 1.



Round of sixteen
Match 55

Attendance: 65'000

Brazil


Substitutes
 * 46' Gilberto Silva for Emerson
 * 61' Juninho Pernambucano for Adriano
 * 83' Ricardinho for Kaka

denotes one goal scored.

Ghana


Substitutes
 * 60' Dereck Boateng for Addo
 * 70' Alex Tachie-Mensah for Amoah

denotes one goal scored.

Officials
Referee: Michel Lubos

Assistant referee: Roman Slysko

Assistant referee: Martin Balko

Fourth referee: Mark Shield

Fifth referee: Nathan Gibson