Bruno Guimaraes continued his fantastic form with a goal and an assist in Brazil’s 4-0 demolition of Bolivia in the early hours of Wednesday morning. He was handed just his second start for the five-time World Cup winners on the back of a couple of impressive cameos and he repaid Tite’s faith with a decisive performance.
The result ensured Brazil would finish top of the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying group after winning 14 and drawing three of their 17 games with one still to play. They will go into the tournament in Qatar at the end of the year as one of the favourites and Guimaraes will be hopeful he does enough between now and then to nail down a starting berth.
In his first six caps for the Selecao – which involved just 83 minutes of action in his first five – he has scored one goal and put on three assists for his team mates. The third of his assists helped put Brazil in front against Bolivia as he danced past a couple of opponents before threading an inch-perfect pass through the legs of a defender and into the path of Lucas Paqueta who made no mistake in opening the scoring.
Read more: Bruno Guimaraes’ flawless Brazil cameo proves Newcastle United midfielder oozes international class
Everton’s Richarlison then doubled his nation’s lead before it became the Bruno show in the second half. Paqueta repaid the favour from the first goal as he clipped a ball into Guimaraes who smashed an excellent volley into the top corner to make it 3-0.
Richarlison rounded off the scoring to make it another thoroughly entertaining evening for Brazilian supporters and players alike. There were another few Premier League stars in action as Fabinho started alongside Guimaraes in midfield with Alisson, Alex Telles and Phillipe Coutinho also in the starting XI.
Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli was introduced from the bench while Fred and Thiago Silva were unused substitutes. Each of those players will be desperate to maintain their places in the Brazil squad with just a few more international breaks between now and the winter World Cup.
