The disappointment was total on the sands of Copacabana, with the defeat of the Brazilian team to Cameroon in the Qatar Cup this Friday (2). The crowd, which took advantage of the sunny day and mild climate by the sea to fill the Fifa Fan Fest space, lamented the result of the match against the Cameroonian team.
Although in the first half Brazil dominated the game, with several scoring opportunities, the score remained immobile. With each wasted bid, the crowd screamed, but remained hopeful of winning the match.
However, in the second half, the Cameroon team came back better and started to create the greatest goal chances, although the Brazilian players continued to try to open the scoring. The Cameroonian insistence was rewarded in the 47th minute of the second half, with an accurate headed goal by Aboubakar.
Audience watches the game between Brazil and Cameroon for the 2022 World Cup, at the Arena Fifa Fan Festival, in Copacabana – Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
Even so, Brazil did not give up and tried until the last minute to reach a tie, which did not happen. Despite the defeat, the Brazilian team remained in first place in the group, ahead of Switzerland, in second place, with the same number of points, but with one goal less than the Brazilians.
Many tourists contributed to filling the FIFA Fan Fest space in Copacabana, such as the Norwegian engineer Martin Ottersen. “I thought it was terrible. It should be Brazil 5 x 1. Neymar is missing. You have to improve to win. In this cup, there’s the France team, which is very strong, but we’re rooting for Brazil”, said Ottersen, who came to Rio with other colleagues, all wearing the yellow shirt of Brazil.
Some fans were even resigned to the result, as they didn’t expect much from Brazil’s reserve team, like pharmaceutical Priscila Costa. “I didn’t even pay much attention, because he got a little discouraged. We already knew that this could happen, because we were putting reserves. I already thought that this score was possible”, said Priscila, who was accompanied by her husband, Reinaldo Veridiano, who was more hopeful of a good result: “I thought that Brazil could have won, even with an elastic score. because all that expectation of victory that we had comes out. But we lost when we could lose.”
As for security Pedro Paulo de Souza Adriano, who did his best to keep one eye on the crowd and the other on the screen, Brazil could have played better if Tite had put forward Pedro from the start. “He could put Pedro [desde o início], not Gabriel Jesus. He could have given this opportunity to Pedro, so he didn’t go through that hardship of having conceded a goal at the end and running after the result. I believe in Brazil, regardless of this defeat, because we have enough quality to reach the final”, said Adriano.
