The five-time champions labored for significant stretches of the game as they failed to break down their Group G opponents’ tenacious defensive setup with Neymar out due to an ankle injury.
Switzerland more than held their own and had glimmers of openings without ever really creating a gilt-edged opportunity with neither side finding it easy to unlock the opposing backline. Brazil brought on Rodrygo at the break and he was soon linking up with his Real Madrid teammate Vinicius, who sent in a sumptuous cross with the outside of his right foot that Richarlison only narrowly failed to turn in.
Vinicius Jnr had looked the most likely to make the breakthrough and saw a second-half strike ruled out by VAR with Richarlison offside earlier in the move.
But with just seven minutes of the 90 remaining, Casemiro latched onto Rodrygo’s smart flick from Vinicius’ pass inside and slammed home with the help of a glancing deflection off Manuel Akanji
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The thrilling 3-3 draw between Serbia and Cameroon earlier in the day means Brazil, with two wins from two matches, are guaranteed a top two spot, although Switzerland – sitting on three points – will need a win in their final group game with Serbia to guarantee their progress. A draw would be enough if Cameroon don’t beat Brazil.
Gary Neville on ITV: “Tite would have come in for a lot of criticism. He makes a change at half-time so he recognises it straight away. For me, the intent all the way through from the senior players, whether it be Thiago Silva pressing up the pitch, whether it’s Casemiro – the holding midfield player in the box, furthest forwards – every change the Brazil coach made in that game told his players ‘we’ve got to win this match’.
“Rodrygo, Antony, Jesus, Guimaraes are on. Fred is off, Lucas Paqueta is off. All the pragmatic behaviour in the first half goes out of the window because the expectation is they have to win the game.
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“And they’re now in a brilliant position where they’ve not only [qualified] but all those talented players, we could see them in the third game. He can experiment, all his squad players can get a touch of the ball.
“They were a little bit too conservative for large parts of the game but the coach got it right in the end by making the changes and interfering with that match positively. He didn’t have enough [of his attackers] on the pitch at the start of the game but towards the end it looked the right type of balance for the quality they have.”
