Brazil bounces back with 4-1 win over Paraguay after shock draw at Copa America

Vinícius Junior scored two first-half goals to lead Brazil to a 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday night and put himself in position to progress from Group D in the Copa America.

Savinho also scored a first-half goal for Brazil and Lucas Paqueta scored on a penalty in the second half. Omar Alderete scored Paraguay’s goal.

There were plenty of tense moments with five yellow cards and one red handed out. Andres Cubas received a red card in the 81st minute, forcing Paraguay to play the final part of the match with a man down. Yellow cards were awarded to Brazil’s Wendell, Junior and Paqueta and Paraguayan Fabian Balbuena and Hernesto Caballero.

The victory was quite a boost for Seleção Canarinho, who started the tournament with a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica on Tuesday, despite outscoring their opponents 18-2.

Brazil is four points behind group leader Colombia, which defeated Costa Rica 3-0 earlier on Friday. A win or draw for Brazil against Colombia on Tuesday will secure one of the group’s two places in the knockout stages. Brazil also has a six-goal difference over Costa Rica, so defeat is unlikely to stop the nine-time Copa America champions.

Brazil have struggled against Paraguay in Copa America play, having drawn their previous five matches, making it the second-longest unbeaten run against Brazil in the tournament, which also included Paraguay from 1963-83.

But Brazil won the most recent encounter by beating Paraguay 4-0 in World Cup qualifying two years ago. There was little doubt about the outcome of this match after two late goals broke the game open in what was a thrilling end to the first half.

Shortly after teammate Bruno Guimaraes hit the crossbar, Savinho put Brazil 2-0 up in the 43rd minute.

Both teams were involved in a scrum in extra time, with Chilean referee Piero Maza Gomez issuing yellow cards to Wendell and Balbuena after three minutes and more. Then Junior delivered the crushing blow five minutes into extra time.

Paraguay had their chances and even defeated Brazil 8-5, including 4-3 on goal. Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker made a great save in the 15th minute, diving to his right to prevent a goal from Damián Bobodilla.

Early in the second half, Alderete scored to close the deficit to 3-1.

17 minutes later, Paqueta made up for a missed penalty in the first half by converting to give Brazil back their 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-match substitute, entering the match in place of Savinho in the 72nd minute.