Brazil beats Germany in an opening match at Olympic Games

Everton’s Richarlison De Andrade netted a superb first-half hat-trick in 7th, 25th and 30th minutes to put the Brazilians in control of the group-stage tie. 

Brazil beats Germany in an opening match at Olympic Games
Richarlison celebrate goal

Defending Champion Brazil defeated Germany in their opening match encounter of the Tokyo Olympics as coach Stefan Kuntz’s side lost by 4-0.

Germany will be facing Saudi Arabia on Sunday before they take on Ivory Coast next Wednesday, with the top two teams from Group D progressing to the quarter-finals.

Everton’s Richarlison De Andrade netted a superb first-half hat-trick in 7th, 25th and 30th minutes to put the Brazilians in control of the group-stage tie. 

Bayer Leverkusen's Nadiem Amiri pulled a goal back in the 56th before Ragnar Ache of Eintracht Frankfurt set up a tense finale of the match with his strike in the 84th minute of the rime. 

However, it wasn’t to be for Kuntz and his team as Leverkusen's Paulinho scored deep in injury time to seal the win for Brazil (90+4’). 

The clash was a rematch of the 2016 Olympic final in Rio when Germany were beaten on penalties and awarded the silver medal.

It was a nightmare start for the Germans as Brazil put Kuntz’s team under heavy pressure from the get-go and succeeded in breaking down the defensive structure to net three goals in half an hour. 

The South Americans were more aggressive in duels and were highly efficient in transition, forcing Müller into making a great save in the first five minutes.

Two minutes later, Richarlison took advantage of an error by Pieper to open the scoring on the second attempt after Müller parried his first effort. 

The Brazilians’ next big chance came again from a German error as Pieper’s header back to his goalkeeper was too short and Richarlison was fastest to the loose ball, with only another great reflex save from the Stuttgart ‘keeper stopping a second.

Brazil kept up the pressure on Germany as the first half progressed and stopped the development of their build-up play. 

With 25 minutes on the clock, Guilherme Arana was played in down the left, taking advantage of a disorganized German defence to cross to the back post, where Richarlison was again on hand to head home to double the advantage. 

Just five minutes later, the Everton man completed his hat-trick as he curled the ball beyond Müller to make it 3-0.

Shortly before the break, referee Ivan Barton from El Salvador pointed to the spot after Henrichs was deemed to have handled the ball in the area. 

However, Florian Müller was equal to the task as he made a brilliant penalty stop to deny Cunha’s penalty and prevented an even larger deficit at halftime. 

Germany’s only shot on target in the first 45 minutes came from Amiri in the 25th minute, but it did not seriously trouble Santos in the Brazil goal.

The outstanding player from Germany’s point of view was goalkeeper Florian Müller, with the Stuttgart man making a series of outstanding stops to keep the Brazilians at bay. 

The victims of the flooding disaster in Germany were in the minds of the team as they took to the pitch in Japan. DFB vice-president Ronny Zimmermann said: 

“Despite the 9,000km that currently separates our Olympic football team from Germany, we have been very moved by the images coming from home. As a team, we’re mourning the victims of the disaster and our thoughts are with their families.”