Socceroos Push Brazil All the Way

On the evidence of this display they might have been some distance from their brilliant best, but Brazil have two big reasons to celebrate after their encounter with the Socceroos – they won 2-0 with goals from Adriano and Fred and, equally important, they emerged relatively unscathed from the experience.

It has to be said that when it comes to the physical side of the game, Australia pull no punches. Players like Blackburn’s Lucas Neill go in hard and sometimes their timing is not ideal, and they reserve the right to protest, as Emerton did to his cost, when referees punish what they consider to be perfectly legal challenges. This approach makes them difficult, and sometimes dangerous, opponents and ominously, for the moment at least, they are still in with a shout of progressing to the next phase of the competition.

Something which will no doubt cause concern in certain quarters.