MY ACCOUNT
Tite admitted it was a tough call to pick a starting striker, but he was thrilled with the performance of Richarlison after netting both of Brazil’s goals in their 2-0 victory against Serbia on Thursday.
Richarlison got the nod at number nine ahead of Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus and Flamengo’s Pedro, and after a scoreless first half, he was on hand to prod home the opener in the 62nd minute after Vinicius Junior’s shot was parried into his path.
That would just be the appetiser, as just 10 minutes later he produced what will be a contender for goal of the tournament as he controlled Vinicius’ shin-high cross with his left foot, popping it up in the air before acrobatically spinning and volleying it home over his shoulder with his right boot.
It was his 19th senior international goal, to go with 88 club goals in his career, and after the match he said he believes it could be his best.
“It was a beautiful goal,” he told reporters. “Probably one of the nicest in all of my career.
“It’s the World Cup, it was a tough match… it was one of the nicest goals I have ever scored.”
Tite spoke about how agonising it was to choose between the wealth of forward talent at his disposal, but also of how impressed he was by Richarlison, particularly in the second half.
“I must tell you, I had six or seven names to call [as striker], and whoever I called, we would have had a great team,” Tite said.
“So we came with Pedro, Richarlison and Gabriel. We could have had [Gabriel] Barbosa, we could have had Firmino, we could have had [Matheus] Cunha, we could have had Hulk. We have a huge number, and you have to pick someone.
“Richarlison is fantastic, we see how he controls the ball… in the second half he created a lot of volume, he adjusted, he calmed down a little bit, he was more precise in his passes.
“The first touch of the ball is crucial to make it flow, and then he started with volume, volume, volume of plays.”
When asked if he was potentially disappointed with how much of a struggle things were early on, Tite made it clear he does not view Serbia as an easy fixture.
“Serbia were very, very good, very quick in the first half,” he said. “But here, you have to keep that rhythm, and keep that level of marking during the entire match.
“They ended the first half very quick, very good technical skill, they were able to start the ball and put it into play quickly, and we weren’t able to stop them from putting the ball into play.
“They are a team, which in the qualifiers they took out Portugal, and in a very consistent manner they played in the qualifiers with opponents at a very high level. They are a great team, and we were able to control them in both halves. We were able to produce more offensively in the second half because of our fine-tuning.
“They had very, very high quality. There was always a lot of pressure, so it did require a lot from us.”
Brazil will continue their campaign in Group G on Monday when they take on Switzerland, before closing their group stage against Cameroon next Friday.
