A night of deafening noise and frantic play inside Rio’s iconic arena ended in triumph for the host nation, as a penalty shootout separated the sides after Saturday’s final finished 1-1 following extra time.
Advertisement
GOAL! Brazil wins in a fashion you couldn’t even write the script for the star scores the first goal, and the game winning goal Brazil are the champions of soccer and the champions of their country’s Olympics viva la Brazil.
He had opened the scoring, with Max Meyer levelling in the second half.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the atmosphere before kick-off was crackling with anticipation, with scores of Brazilian fans milling around the Maracana hours before the game got underway.
There were no further goals in the encounter and it had to be decided via the lottery of penalties.
If anybody thought the Germans would be anticipated by the “home” crowd, they would be mistaken.
Horst Hrubesch’s side calm and composed on the ball when the game got underway, and they also had the better of the opportunities in the opening period.
However, they struggled to make chances and it was the Germans who nearly opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Julian Brandt smacked the bar with a lovely curling shot from outside the box.
Brazil, though, know all too well that such emotion is not always enough and Germany fired a warning shot in the 10th minute, with Julian Brandt curling a handsome strike that rattled both the crossbar and partisan crowd.
The highly-rated German captain forced Weverton into a strong save from the resulting corner, before Sven Bender’s powerful header hit the woodwork.
Jeremy Toljan’s cross from the right found Meyer in the box, with the Germany captain sweeping home superbly and celebrating the equaliser right in front of the locals. Neymar then sparked into life again to put through Felipe Anderson – who was about to pull the trigger when through one-on-one before Lukas Klostermann made a last-ditch tackle.
Advertisement
Extra-time awaited and dawdling Luan was blocked before Brandt turned just over, with Horn rushing off his line to deny Felipe Anderson shortly after the break. Brazil has won five World Cups but never until that moment of release an Olympic gold medal.
