BRAZIL CRUISES BY CROATIA IN WORLD CUP OPENER

The road to the finals started for Brazil in Sao Paulo on Thursday with a 3-1 victory over Croatia. Led by Neymar who had 2 goals, one of which on a PK after a questionable yellow card on Croatia’s Dejan Lovren. “It’s important to start these tournaments with the right foot, with a victory,” Neymar said. “I’m happy that I got to score, but the entire team deserves credit. We maintained our calm and showed we could battle back.”

The game started out looking like Brazil could be the first host city to ever lose an opener when goalie Marcelo had an own goal but Neymar hit a long equalizer at 29′ then hit the PK, and Oscar hit a goal in stoppage time of the 2nd half to close out the game at 3-1 and secure Brazil 3 points in the table. “I stayed calm because if I let myself get down I would have hurt the team,” Marcelo said of the OG. “It’s not the first time that this has happened, so you have to stay relaxed to help the team.”