Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
The Brazilian team in this match surprised many people, they played from the beginning of the match with extremely stable ball control in the face of Serbia, and did not play crazy attacking soccer, and Serbia was therefore clamped down, and could not play their own attacking soccer, resulting in a complete lack of offense, and finally defeated by the Brazilian team to control the game.
Brazil's 4231 was set up with Neymar in the center and Casemiro and Paquetá in the back. Although Paquetá is an attacking midfielder, he stayed in the middle and did not press forward, and he was very careful in controlling the connection between the defense line and the front line, and instead of playing the veteran DaniAlves and the attacking Telles, the two flanking defenders were the rigid Danilo and AlexSandro to deal with Serbia's rigid attack. Danilo and Alex Sandro were used to counter Serbia's stiff attack.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
Serbia played a 343 with Tadic and Milinkovi?-Savi? in front of the main midfielders, trying to give the ball to the center forward Mitrovi?-Savi?, but this tactic was already ineffective as soon as the game started, as Brazil had their two wingbacks going forward to cover Serbia's two wingbacks, ivkovi?-Savi? and Mladenovi?-Savi?. Tadic and Milinkovi?-Savi?, on the other hand, were in the center with Mitrovi?, which did not allow them to form an overlap to push the wingbacks forward, and then Brazilian wingbacks Vinicius Jr. and Raphinha started to show their breakthrough power, especially on the side of Vinicius Jr, as Neymar was leaning towards him. Neymar was leaning towards this side, and he was dominating Vinicius Jr and Richarlison with his passes. In the first half, Brazil was pressuring on the left side, which directly led to the Serbian wingback, ?ivkovi?, being surrounded and having to retreat, and it was a similar situation on the other side.
Serbia's tactics should have been for the two wingbacks to push forward and then pass directly to center Mitrovi?or to the second row of Tadic and Milinkovi?-Savi?but the sides couldn't get through, and the two attacking midfielders didn't do the work of the wingers, so the result was that the three up front were always running together, and the Serbian side hadn't been able to create a distance between the players, which made it impossible to create space. Unable to create space, not even to charge, the whole game down Mitrovi? almost did not get the ball a few times.
The Serbs are big and actually good at defending, with left midfielder Pavlovi? blocking Raphinha so he couldn't get a cross in at all, and Veljkovi? and Milenkovi? in the center of the field jamming up Richarlison, Brazil couldn't actually generate any effective shots on goal, but they weren't in a hurry, and it's clear that Brazil avoided physical contact with Serbia for the whole game, and had a lot of lateral passes instead of straight passes. Avoiding the disk, avoiding physical contact with Serbia, and a lot of lateral passes, rather than a direct pass attack, Brazil in the first half of the game is the same as constantly shifting the ball position, the backfield has been maintained in the four defenders double back, so that the Serbian front running position confusion, often crowded together, and Brazil even if you want to shift the side of the transfer, it is not trying to penetrate the line of defense, but prudent pass to the left and right sides of the ball to let the players hold the ball, and then try to use the forward diagonal running The Brazilian team is not trying to break through the defense, but cautiously passing to the left and right sides to let the players hold the ball, then trying to create space by running diagonally with the strikers, and then passing back as long as it doesn't work. As soon as this situation is formed, it feels like Brazil is controlling the game but not attacking strongly, but Serbia is gradually looking like a fly on the wall under the constant mobilization.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
At the beginning of the second half, Brazil moved Paquetá up to the attacking midfield position, and at the same time sent Neymar a little bit further into the Serbian defense to become close to the half-forward status, after increasing the number of people in front of the field, the speed of ball distribution became faster, and Vinicius Jr and Raphinha also cooperated with the Serbian wingbacks began to force them to retreat with more forceful rushes, and the first half was the first half. In the first half, Neymar dominated Vinicius Jr on the left, and in the second half, Paquetá dominated Raphinha on the right. Brazil's attacking formation was not complete until then, and the previous period was just a strategy to test and consume the ball, and avoid a hard match with Serbia for the whole game.
In the second half, Serbia did try to counterattack by increasing the aggressiveness of their tackles, but the Brazilian side controlled the tempo, and the backline hardly made any mistakes. In this case, Paquetá stepped up and pressed back the Serbian midfielders Luki and Gudelj to make the Brazilian backfield look safe.
In the 62nd minute, Casemiro went up the middle and fed the ball to Neymar, who started to dribble into the box, and just before he was defended and about to drop the ball, Vinicius Jr went straight to the far post and fired a shot that Milinkovi?-Savi?could only block immediately, but the ball went straight to the front of the six-yard box, and Richarlison had a chance to add to his tally. Richarlison had the chance to add to his tally.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
