Brazil Cruise to Win vs. Russia in Friendly Despite Neymar Being Out with Injury

Brazil eased to a comfortable 3-0 win over FIFA 2018 World Cup hosts Russia in an international friendly at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, on Friday.

Goals from Joao Miranda, Philippe Coutinho and Paulinho did the damage as Tite's side, missing the injured Neymar, served notice of their intent ahead of the summer's tournament.

The two sides shared their lineups on Twitter:

The visitors started the brighter and had an early chance when Dani Alves fed Gabriel Jesus, but his effort was blocked by goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.

Brazil had the better of the early chances but were let down by some tame finishing. Coutinho tried a shot, which did not really test Akinfeev, and Willian should have opened the scoring after being teed up by Douglas Costa, but he could only fire straight at the goalkeeper.

Robbie Dunne at AS explained why Brazil were struggling:

Russia slowly grew into the game and had the best chance of the first half just 10 minutes before the interval. Fyodor Smolov and Aleksei Miranchuk combined well down the left, but the latter could only fire over the bar from close range.

Squawka Football's Muhammad Butt said there was plenty of space for Russia to exploit on the break:

Brazil ramped up the pressure after the break, with Akinfeev saving from Paulinho before managing to get in the way of a shot from Willian that took a heavy deflection off a defender.

However, the visitors' persistence paid off as Joao Miranda poked home from close range after Akinfeev could only parry Thiago Silva's header.

Coutinho should have added a second after scurrying into the box and shooting across goal, but Paulinho intervened and tried to tap the ball home, and his mis-hit shot was saved.

Paulinho was quick to make amends as he won a penalty on the hour mark after being dragged down in the penalty area. Up stepped Coutinho, who sent Akinfeev the wrong way to double Brazil's lead.

Selecao Brasileira praised Coutinho's second-half performance:

Brazil then added a third as Willian did superbly well to stand up a ball for an unmarked Paulinho to head into an empty net and make it 3-0.

Squawka Football showed how good Paulinho's form is for Brazil:

Russia should have grabbed one back, but Silva headed one off the line, and that was as close as the hosts came to scoring.

It was a comprehensive win for Brazil who simply raised their game after a goalless first half and had far too much quality going forwards for Russia.