Brazil coach Tite was able to relax a little after watching his team get a comfortable 3-0 success over South Korea. This was a crucial victory for the national team, which has come under a lot of pressure since the latest Copa America schedule. After managing to win the competition by overcoming Peru with a 3-1 victory, Brazil have gone five games without a win. Even though these friendly matches do not count much for the national team, they have been very bad for morale. Among this poor run happens to be a 1-0 defeat to Argentina.
However, there was no sign of trouble against South Korea and Brazil were off to a good start thanks to an early goal from Lucas Paqueta. His ninth-minute goal was able to reduce nerves within the squad and Philippe Coutinho made the game safe with a 36th minute goal. Just after half-time, former Manchester City defender Danilo further extended Brazil’s advantage with a third goal. Tite was a happy man to end 2019 on a winning note, as it means better preparation for the upcoming World Cup 2022 qualification campaign in 2020. The first opponents in the qualification campaign will become apparent once the draw is completed next month.
“When we won the Copa America, it was great. Following that, when we played a few more matches, the performance took a dip because we weren’t challenged on the pitch and weren’t playing against strong teams.However, it is a different story when we take on strong teams. It lifts our performance and really shines the light on the great talent we have on the team. We did a great job and ended with a great result. But not only did we have a great result, we also performed really well,” said Tite after the game.