Brazil’s coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, insisted the penalty that gave the home side the lead against Croatia was valid despite his counterpart, Niko Kovac, labelling the controversial decision “ridiculous”.
Scolari also paid tribute to the São Paulo crowd for helping Brazil to get back into the game after a Marcelo own goal had handed Croatia a shock lead in the opening match of the World Cup.
A furious Kovac said he did not blame the Brazil striker Fred for going down easily under a challenge from Dejan Lovren but said the World Cup risked becoming a “circus” if the standard of refereeing does not improve.
The Japanese official, Yuichi Nishimura, awarded the penalty when the scores were 1-1 and Neymar dispatched the spot-kick for his second goal of the game. “If anybody saw this was a penalty anywhere in the stadium, raise their hands,” said Kovac. “I don’t think this was a penalty. It will never be, this is ridiculous.
“If you continue like this you will have 100 penalties. I think 2.5 billion people watching on TV saw this was not a penalty. Fred is an 85kg man and I don’t believe he can be brought to the ground in such a manner.”
Scolari insisted he had seen the pivotal incident 10 times and he believed the penalty should have been given.“Millions didn’t see the penalty? Well the referee did,” said Brazil’s coach. “The referee, it’s up to them. They are the ones who must decide. Also, we believe it was a penalty.”
Scolari, who has never lost a World Cup match with Brazil, praised his players and the crowd for their persistence after the psychological blow of going behind after 11 minutes.
“I believe the burden of not having felt the goal was thanks to the crowd and thanks to the fans,” he said, calling the support within the new stadium “amazing, wonderful, unbelievable”.
Neymar’s two goals earned him the man-of-the-match award, but Scolari also picked out Oscar for praise following an industrious, inventive performance by the Chelsea player. There had been some debate in the Brazilian media over whether he deserved to start but Scolari said he never had any doubts.
“I know what was in my mind. Our stats after the game showed that Oscar was the one who took most balls from the opponent, he was most creative on the righthand side.
“He had a lot of dribbles and a lot of moves and he was fantastic. The only thing he had to do was for me to continue believing in him. Neymar was man of the match, but if there was a second award it should have been given to Oscar.”
Neymar, who scored a precise equaliser and held his nerve to convert the penalty, said it was important to play as a team. “I am really very happy. Even happier than I dreamed of and thought I could be. To start off on the right foot with a victory is very important,” said the forward, who now has 33 goals in 50 games for his country. “I’m very happy with the two goals, we were very calm and we were able to react very quickly and turn the score around.”