BRAZIL produced a polished performance in Wolfsburg to see off Norway 3-0 to qualify from Group D of the Women’s World Cup.
A classy brace from Marta and an assured finish from Rosana gave Brazil the three points and left Norway needing to beat Australia next week to make the quarters. The first-half was a fairly scrappy affair early on as both sides sized each other up and looked a little nervy: the first real chance did not arrive till 22 minutes in and it was fully capitalised on by Marta, although not without controversy.
The Brazilian was chasing down a through ball along with Nora Holstad Berge and Marta seemed to push the defender in the back: nothing was given and she burst in on goal, rounding Maren Mjelde and firing past Ingrid Hjelmseth at her near post.
It was a great run and finish by Marta, but the Norwegians were very unhappy with the contact made with Holstad.
Brazil came to the fore after the goal and won corner after corner but the delivery was poor every time and they could not create a chance.
Norway were competing well in midfield but when they moved into the final third they had no cutting edge and Brazil were snuffing out their attacks with relative ease.
The Scandinavians made a change at half time but their plans were well and truly torn up five minutes later when they found themselves three goals down.
After just two minutes of the second-half Marta made a pacy run down the left and cut inside, sliding a ball across the edge of the box which was dummied by Cristiane and found by Rosana who confidently powered it into the back of the net.
The Norwegians were shell-shocked and two minutes later Ingvild Stensland and then Mjelde gave the ball away: Cristiane pounced but her effort was saved, but Marta calmly got hold of the rebound and made no mistake from six yards.
Although there was still a full 40 minutes to go the game was effectively over, Brazil happy to knock the ball around their back four and hold Norway at bay.
The ladies in red continued to try and break down the South Americans but were having no luck, their most dangerous weapon being a long ball up to substitute Cecilie Pedersen but she never really got an effective shot away
Brazil now top Group D and have qualified for the quarter-finals, Norway face a winner-takes-all contest against Australia on Wednesday as both sit on three points in the group. (Eurosport)