LAS VEGAS – Vinícius Júnior scored two first-half goals to lead Brazil to a 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday night and put itself in position to advance out of Group D in the Copa América.
Savinho also scored a first-half goal for Brazil and Lucas Paquetá scored on a penalty kick in the second half. Omar Alderete scored Paraguay’s goal.
There were plenty of tense moments with five yellow cards and a red handed out. Andrés Cubas was sent off for a red card in the 81st minute, forcing Paraguay to play the last part of the match down a man. Yellow cards were handed to Brazil’s Wendell, Vinícius and Paqueta and Paraguay’s Fabián Balbuena and Hernesto Caballero.
The victory was quite a response for the Seleção, who opened the tournament Tuesday with a scoreless draw against Costa Rica despite outshooting their opponent 18-2.
With four points, Brazil is two behind group leader Colombia, which defeated Costa Rica 3-0 earlier Friday. A victory or tie by Brazil against Colombia on Tuesday ensures one of the group’s two spots in the knockout stage. Brazil also has a six-goal differential advantage over Costa Rica, so a loss likely won’t keep out the nine-time Copa Vinícius champions.
Brazil has had its difficulties against Paraguay in Copa América play, having drawn in their previous five meetings. That tied for the second-longest unbeaten streak against Brazil in this tournament, which Paraguay also was part of from 1963-83.
But Brazil won the most recent meeting, defeating Paraguay 4-0 two years ago in World Cup qualifying, and there was little doubt about the outcome of this match after two late goals broke it open in what was a contentious end to the first half.
Moments after teammate Bruno Guimarães hit the crossbar, Savinho put Brazil up 2-0 in the 43rd minute.
Both teams got into a scrum in stoppage time, with Chilean referee Piero Maza Gomez handing yellow cards to Wendell and Balbuena at three-plus minutes. Then Vinícius delivered the crushing blow five minutes into added time
Paraguay had its chances and even outshot Brazil 8-5, including 4-3 on goal. Brazil goalkeeper Alisson Becker made a tremendous save diving to his right to prevent a goal from Damián Bobodilla 15 minutes into the match.
Early in the second half, however, Alderete scored to close the deficit to 3-1.
Then 17 minutes later, Paqueta made up for a missed penalty kick in the first half by converting to give back Brazil its three-goal lead.
Brazil coach Dorival Júnior made a bold and controversial move by deciding not to start Raphinha. The move, with national team legend Neymar watching from the stands, clearly paid off.
Raphinha was a late-game substitute, entering the match at the 72nd minute in place of Savinho.