ESPN FC’s Mark Donaldson breaks down Brazil’s narrow 1-nil victory over Chile.
Roberto Firmino came off the bench to score a second-half winner as Brazil beat South American rivals Chile 1-0 in a friendly at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
Neymar, Alexis Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal were all on display in north London, but the game’s biggest names could only show glimpses of their attacking best and it was left to substitute Firmino to find the decisive goal in the 73 minute.
Since last year’s humiliating exit at their home World Cup, Brazil have now recorded eight successive victories under new manager Dunga, including wins over Colombia, Argentina and France.
Alexandre Lacazette scores to put France in front of Denmark in the teams’ friendly match.
In-form Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette scored his first international goal as France beat Denmark 2-0 in a friendly in St Etienne.
The 24-year-old grabbed his 28th goal for club and country this season and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud doubled France’s lead before half-time.
Denmark came into the game in the second half but could not find a way past Stephane Ruffier, the St Etienne keeper playing on home territory at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Defender Raphael Varane, captain for the night in the absence of Hugo Lloris, was one of only three survivors from the team beaten 3-1 by Brazil on Thursday. Antoine Griezmann and Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin were the others.
Ivory Coast’s African Cup honeymoon was cut short on Sunday as it had to fight for a 1-1 draw at home to Equatorial Guinea in a friendly.
Iban Edu broke away for Equatorial Guinea’s goal in the 13th minute, forcing the new African champion to scramble for an equalizer, which eventually came in the 72nd from substitute Max Gradel.
Before the game at Abidjan’s Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium, the Ivorians paraded the Cup of Nations trophy they won last month in Equatorial Guinea and honored retiring players Boubacar Barry and Kolo Toure. But Edu outpaced his marker early and fired a shot into the roof of the net to abruptly end those celebrations.
Ivory Coast created plenty of chances in response. Yaya Toure and Gervinho started, but Gervinho left before halftime with what appeared to be a right hamstring injury and was replaced by Wilfried Bony.
South Africa equalized deep in injury time for a 1-1 draw with Nigeria in their international friendly on Sunday.
Bongani Zungu knocked in a loose ball to deny the Nigerians a much-needed victory at Mbombela Stadium in the northern South African city of Nelspruit.
Ahmed Musa’s classy 85th-minute goal momentarily revived Nigerian spirits after their surprise 1-0 home loss to Uganda in the week. CSKA Moscow forward Musa cut in from the left wing and curled a right-footer into the top right corner of the goal.
South Africa had missed a penalty in the 63rd minute, when midfielder Andile Jali was too casual and had his soft spot-kick stopped by debutant Nigerian goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi.
Also among Sunday’s friendlies, Zambia beat Rwanda 2-0 to give Rwanda’s new 29-year-old Northern Irish coach Johnny McKinstry a losing start. Tanzania and Malawi drew 1-1.