DERBY, England (AP) — Daniel Alves and Alexandre Pato were on target as Brazil beat Ukraine 2-0 Monday in a friendly in Derby, maintaining the five-time world champions' perfect record under new coach Mano Menezes.
Barcelona full back Alves opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a deflected volley and AC Milan striker Pato made the game safe with a shot on the turn in the 64th. Both players were on the scoresheet in Brazil’s 3-0 win over Iran in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
A youthful Brazil side— missing established stars such as Kaka, Lucio and Luis Fabiano — fully deserved its win, which gives Menezes a third win in a row along with a third clean sheet.
"We expected a harder game than the ones we’ve had so far and I am satisfied with the game and how my team played," said Menezes, whose side beat the United States 2-0 in his first match in charge. "The team is making progress but we need to play more games like this one tonight, against different kinds of teams and different kinds of philosophies of football."
Ukraine, which will co-host the 2012 European Championship with Poland, was outclassed in every department and went down to its first loss in four matches under temporary coach Yury Kalitvintsev.
Menezes has been charged with the task of restoring some flair and creativity to the Brazil team after taking over from the negative Dunga, who was fired after the country’s quarterfinal elimination at the World Cup.
The new coach’s long-term aim is to mould a side in time for the 2014 World Cup, which will be held in Brazil, and he is therefore giving youth a chance at the start of his reign. In that regard, attackers Pato and Carlos Eduardo impressed at a chilly Pride Park, home of English second-tier side Derby County.
"My goal is the Olympic team so I am giving opportunity to young players. They will probably play many times until the Olympic qualifiers," Menezes said.
Brazil’s next match will be against fierce rival Argentina in Doha on Nov. 17 and midfielder Lucas Leiva believes his team is on the right track.
"I think the last few results were positive, we have won all our games, but we have a tough opponent in the next match," said the Liverpool player, who impressed as Brazil’s anchorman in midfield. "We know how difficult that will be but I think we are in a good place at the moment."
Robinho, one of the few survivors from the tournament in South Africa, was given the captaincy for the second match running and appeared to relish wearing the armband again.
Making his return to England after being sold to AC Milan by Manchester City in the transfer window, the mercurial forward delighted a sparse crowd of 13,088 with his trademark stepovers and flicks. Tellingly, he dovetailed that with a work ethic rarely seen at Eastlands.
"He is more mature now. Even though he’s not so old, he’s one of the oldest players we have in the team and he is happy now, which is really important for us," Menezes added. "He’s one of the key players for us."
Robinho set up the opener for Alves with a pinpoint cross to the far post that the galloping full back volleyed in — via a deflection — off the far post.
Prior to that, Benfica center back David Luiz hooked an effort over from six yards after reacting well to a knockdown from a 22nd-minute corner. And nine minutes before halftime, Pato struck the post with a left-foot shot after pouncing on an errant back-pass by Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Ukraine, which suffered its first defeat in almost a year of friendly matches, was non-existent as an attacking force in the first half although the team did have a 44th-minute goal by Oleksandr Aliev disallowed for an earlier foul.
Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Rotan saw a deflected shot strike the post just after the break but Brazil’s tempo did not drop and Pato made it 2-0 in the 64th.
Robinho set Eduardo free down the right and the Rubin Kazan forward’s cross was controlled by Pato, who span his marker superbly to finish from eight yards.
The match petered out as the teams, playing each other for the first time, made a raft of substitutions in the second half.
Ukraine missed the thrust of former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko, who would have won his 100th cap but was ruled out after picking up a knock in the 2-2 draw against Canada on Friday.
Derby, a city in central England, was chosen to host the friendly as it has the largest Ukrainian immigrant population in the country.
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Lineups:
Brazil: Victor, Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva, David Marinho, Andre Santos (Adriano, 46) Lucas Leiva, Elias Trindade (Wesley, 87), Ramires (Sandro, 65), Robinho (Andre, 82), Alexandre Pato (Nilmar, 78), Carlos Eduardo (Giuliano, 65).
Ukraine: Andriy Dykan, Oleksandr Kucher, Vitaliy Mandzyuk, Artem Fedetskiy, Oleksandr Romanchuk, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ruslan Rotan, Volodymyr Polyovy (Oleksiy Gai, 72), Oleg Gusev (Igor Khudobyak, 46), Oleksandr Aliyev, Artem Milevskiy (Yevgen Seleznov, 62).
