World Cup: Brazil join Eagles in goalless drama

The loser of Wednesday night’s clash between Croatia and Cameroon will exit the competition.

Hosts, Brazil, and Mexico Tuesday night battled to a goalless draw in their second Group A match s both sides fought to remain in contention for a place in the knockout phase of the ongoing Mundial.

The duo have thus joined Nigeria and Iran who are credited with the first barren outing at the hitherto high scoring world cup tournament in the Samba country.

The inability to record goals in the Brazil-Mexico duel is far from dearth of scoring chances but more for the heroics of the goalkeepers at both ends, especially the Mexican shot stopper, Ochoa, who denied the likes of Neymar, Oscar, and Thiago Silva amongst others from finding the back of the net.

Ochoa with his performance could well have sold himself to top clubs in Europe as he is currently not tied to any club having run out of his contract with relegated French side, Ajaccio.

Amongst other occasions, Neymar, who bagged two goals in his side’s opening game against Croatia, last week, collected a cross in the box from Bernard on the 70-minute mark before seeing his resulting strike kept out by Ochoa.

Bernard was provider once more shortly after when he picked out fellow substitute Jo with a low pass, but his shot failed to test the Mexican stopper.

As the game edged towards full time, Ochoa was called into action for a final time to deny Silva from a close-range header to ensure that the game ended goalless.

Both sides move up to four points in Group A following the draw. This means the loser of Wednesday night’s clash between Croatia and Cameroon will exit the competition.

Brazil’s barren outing on Tuesday is the first time since 1978 that they will not score in a group phase match of the World Cup.