MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Leandro Damiao scored two second-half goals Tuesday to help Brazil beat South Korea 3-0 and reach its first Olympic men’s soccer final in 24 years.
Defensive midfielder Romulo put Brazil ahead in the 38th minute and Damiao added his goals in the 57th and 64th to leave the South American team one match away from winning its first gold in soccer.
The Brazilians will face Mexico, which beat Japan 3-1 at Wembley Stadium in the other semifinal.
Brazil was the bronze-medalist in 2008 but hadn’t reached the Olympic final since the 1988 Seoul Games, when it finished with the silver with a team led by Romario and Bebeto.
Brazil will be playing in its third Olympic final. It also won the silver in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The Brazilians also got the bronze in 1996 in Atlanta.
Brazil came to the London Games as the main gold-medal contender because most of its top players make the tournament’s under-23 age limit, including Neymar and Oscar. Each nation can also use three older players.
Brazil became the only favorite left in this year’s tournament after Spain and Uruguay were eliminated in the first stage and host Britain fell to South Korea in the quarterfinals.
Brazil struggled early and it was South Korea which had the most significant scoring chances in the beginning of the match in front of nearly 70,000 at Old Trafford.
The Brazilians broke through with a goal after Neymar stole a ball near midfield and fed it to Oscar, who made a run up the middle before rolling it to Romulo just inside the area. The defensive midfielder came on the run and sent a low shot past South Korea goalkeeper Lee Bum-young just before halftime.
Damiao gave Brazil some cushion after Neymar and left back Marcelo exchanged passes in front of the area. Neymar made a low cross to Damiao and he sent a low shot into the net from near the penalty spot.
The striker added his second after a pass deflected off a defender and fell into his feet inside the area for another easy goal, his sixth in the tournament to surpass Senegal‘s Moussa Konate as the competition’s leading scorer.
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