BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil: Paulinho scored with a header four minutes from time to give Brazil a 2-1 win over Uruguay and take the host nation to the final of the Confederations Cup.
Diego Forlan missed a penalty in the 13th minute after Chelsea defender David Luiz wrestled Diego Lugano to the ground.
Brazil took the lead in the 40th minute when Neymar latched onto to a long ball from Paulinho and his deflected shot fell to Fred, who bundled the ball home.
It took Uruguay three minutes of the second half to draw level.
The Brazilian defence repeatedly failed to clear the ball and when Thiago Silva’s weak pass fell to Edinson Cavani he made no mistake with an angled drive.
The second half threw up few good chances but Paulinho rose to head home a Neymar corner in the 86th minute and give Brazil victory, with Spain and Italy playing in today’s second semi.
Earlier, a capacity crowd held a minute’s applause before the semi-final in memory of Marc-Vivien Foe, the Cameroon player who died during a match in the same tournament exactly 10 years ago.
Foe collapsed unexpectedly in the 75th minute of the Confederations Cup semi-final in Lyon between Cameroon and Colombia on June 26, 2003. Although medics tried to resuscitate him he was pronounced dead minutes later.
He died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a rare condition that causes the walls of the heart to thicken and is very hard to diagnose.
“We won the match 1-0 and the players were dancing in the changing rooms afterwards,” then Cameroon manager Winfried Schafer told the BBC.
“Then (captain) Rigobert Song came in and cried and said “Marcus, Marcus” and told us he was dead.
“Everyone was shocked and was asking why. All the players were crying. I went out of the dressing room and heard two ladies crying very, very loudly. Then I saw Marcus lying there, on a table, with his mother and wife by his side. I touched his leg and I went outside and cried too.” AGENCIES
