BRAZIL forwards Ronaldo and Adriano
shrugged off their disappointing club form by scoring to set the world
champions on their way to a 4-0 win over New Zealand in their final
World Cup warm-up match in Geneva yesterday.
Ronaldo, who has suffered a frustrating series of minor injuries with
Real Madrid, opened the scoring two minutes before half-time.
Adriano, also under scrutiny after failing to find his scoring touch
with Inter Milan, thumped home the second shortly after the interval.
Kaka added the third with a breakaway goal in the 85th minute and
Juninho Pernambucano made it 4-0 in injury time as Brazil completed
their 10th match without defeat.
An excellent performance by New Zealand goalkeeper Glen Moss, currently
without a club, prevented the world champions adding to their score.
Brazil, whose last defeat was against Mexico in last year's
Confederations Cup, open their World Cup campaign against Croatia in
Berlin on 13 June. They also face Australia and Japan in Group F.
New Zealand, playing the fourth match of a European tour that has
produced a loss to Hungary, a draw with Estonia and a win over Georgia,
troubled Brazil with some aerial attacks but Hibernian's Chris Killen
and his team-mates failed to seriously test goalkeeper Dida. |
