Brazil boss Dorival Junior made a bold choice to axe Newcastle United star Bruno Guimaraes from his lineup ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Chile.
With Brazil continuing to struggle to find the kind of form that they're famous for, Dorival Junior made a huge call going into the match against the team second-bottom of their World Cup Qualifier group, Chile, by reshaping his midfield without Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes.
Bruno is practically undroppable for Newcastle United with their win-rate without the Brazilian an actual embarrassment, but he seemingly doesn't, or at least didn't carry the same weight for his country.
Guimaraes watched on from the sidelines as Chile took an early lead through Eduardo Vargas with just two minutes on the clock.
It took Brazil until first-half stoppage time to claw a goal back, but by that point Dorival had seen enough and Bruno Guimaraes came out for the second half.
Playing in a deeper role than he often does for Newcastle, Bruno tried to affect the game from just in front of the back line and with 89 minutes played, Bruno popped up with an assist for Luiz Henrique to steal the win for Brazil.
GOAL rated the players giving Bruno a 6/10 for his second half influenceL
"Bruno Guimaraes (6/10):
"Brought on at halftime. A sense of composure and calmness arrived in the center of the park with his introduction as well."
Brazil now sit fourth in the CONMEBAL World Cup Qualifying table behind Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay.
Except for Argentina, you wouldn't expect any country to be ahead of Brazil in a league table, but here we are.
Next up for Brazil is bottom of the table Peru and we wonder if Bruno Guimaraes is restored to the starting lineup for that one.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
10 | 13 | 25 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
10 | 10 | 23 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
10 | 7 | 19 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
10 | 8 | 18 |
5 |
Arsenal
|
10 | 6 | 18 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
10 | 2 | 18 |
7 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
10 | 11 | 16 |
8 |
Brighton
|
10 | 3 | 16 |
9 |
Fulham
|
10 | 1 | 15 |
10 |
Bournemouth
|
10 | 1 | 15 |
11 |
Newcastle United
|
10 | 0 | 15 |
12 |
Brentford
|
10 | -1 | 13 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
10 | -3 | 12 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
10 | -6 | 11 |
15 |
Leicester
|
10 | -4 | 10 |
16 |
Everton
|
10 | -7 | 9 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
10 | -5 | 7 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
10 | -11 | 5 |
19 |
Southampton
|
10 | -12 | 4 |
20 |
Wolves
|
10 | -13 | 3 |