Brazil overcame the worst start possible and beat Croatia 3-1 in a wild, controversy-filled opening game to the World Cup.
Brazil, the favorite to win the entire tournament, did not play as well as the 3-1 scoreline indicates. If it wasn't for a bad penalty call in the second half, this could have been a disastrous result for them.
Croatia opening the scoring in the 11th minute on an own goal by Marcelo:
A Neymar goal in the 30th minute was perfectly placed, and made it 1-1 going into halftime:
Brazil was sluggish in the 2nd half. The pace slowed down considerably, and they seemed to lack ideas going forward. But then in the 68th minute Fred dove in the box, and the referee called a penalty. Clear flop:
Neymar converted the penalty, but only by a hair. It made it 2-1 Brazil, and forced Croatia to commit men forward:
In the 90th minute, Oscar got out on the counterattack and scored a toe-poke goal. Poor keeping, but still a nice finish:
Brazil will take the three points, but as fun a game as it was for us to watch, this wasn't a good performance for the hosts.
Check out our full liveblog below for bonus screenshots and GIFs.