Brazil beat Italy 2-0 in friendly at Emirates

LONDON — Robinho and Elano scored for Brazil in a 2-0 victory over world champion Italy, which had two goals disallowed at Emirates Stadium yesterday.

Brazil's Lucio (right) and Italy's Giuseppe Rossi battle for the ball during their international friendly at the Emirates Stadium in London yesterday. — AP pic

Italy’s first loss under coach Marcello Lippi since 2004 denied him a world record 32nd successive match without defeat.

The two Manchester City players had the shortest journeys to London for this “derby of the world,” and gave the five-time World Cup winners a big head start in the first 27 minutes of the entertaining friendly.

The slick samba football beamed back home from Arsenal’s stadium should placate some of Dunga’s critics, who have branded his game dull after a string of disappointing results in World Cup qualifying.

“It was one of the best matches since I became manager,” Dunga said. “We didn’t have time to train a lot, but we talked a lot, watched videos and trained a lot on technical skills.

“This showed we have quality, but if we are a big team we have to be humble as well.”

For Italy, the match provided evidence of the size of the task facing Lippi ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“It’s clear they played technically better than us,” Lippi said through a translator. “They were very determined, very good players and that’s something I didn’t expect. We were a little bit intimidated and at the moment Brazil is stronger than us and their supremacy can’t be debated.

“We struggled and suffered. We aren’t used to losing, but we are rebuilding our team.”

Italy, which won a fourth World Cup under Lippi in 2006, should have led after four minutes. Fabio Grosso found the net after latching onto Andrea Pirlo’s through ball and was incorrectly judged to be offside by English referee Howard Webb.

Brazil went ahead after 16 minutes thanks to Elano, who hasn’t scored in the Premier League since August.

The attacking midfielder backheeled the ball to Robinho, who returned it to his City teammate to slot past Gianluigi Buffon.

A counterattack 11 minutes later saw captain Lucio race forward unchallenged before sliding a pass to Ronaldinho. While a wayward pass came from the AC Milan playmaker, who had been snubbed by Dunga for the previous three matches, Andrea Pirlo froze and fumbled the clearance, allowing forward Robinho to regain possession.

Robinho, the British record signing, dribbled past three blue shirts before unleashing a low shot past Buffon.

Italy came close again before the break, with Daniele de Rossi’s weak shot palmed over by Julio Cesar, and Alberto Gilardino slicing high.

Lippi, who complained about the match coming 48 hours after Serie A action, made four changes at halftime and the Italians looked more assertive and found the net for a second time in the 65th only to be denied again by Webb.

Luca Toni appeared to take Pirlo’s deep ball down with his hand before firing past Cesar.

In the last 10 minutes Cesar denied Toni with a point-blank save, and blocked Fabio Grosso’s free kick. — AP