Brazil’s 3-0 beating of South Korea in Abu Dhabi reinforced why they remain “one of the best international teams”, according to relieved coach Tite.
AC Milan playmaker Lucas Paqueta’s header, Bayern Munich loanee Philippe Coutinho’s staggering free-kick and a resounding finish from on-rushing Manchester City full-back Danilo snapped a five-match winless run since the summer’s Copa America success.
Tuesday’s friendly opponents at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium were well beaten and had only a handful of optimistic attempts from Tottenham forward Son Heung-min to show for themselves in response.
“When we won the Copa America, it was great,” said ex-Al Ain and Al Wahda boss Tite. “Following that, when we played a few more matches, the performance took a dip because we weren’t challenged on the pitch and weren’t playing against strong teams.
“However, it is a different story when we take on strong teams. It lifts our performance and really shines the light on the great talent we have on the team.
“We did a great job and ended with a great result. But not only did we have a great result, we also performed really well
“We showed fans why Brazil is one of the best international teams.”
Opposite number Paulo Bento admitted his Taegeuk Warriors cracked under the pressure of facing a nation vastly superior – even without injured Neymar – to those found on the Asian circuit.
He said: “I think it was a different game. A game in a different context than we played before.
“In the qualifiers to the World Cup, the idea is the same. But the opponents are different and have different strategies.
“Today, we faced the best team until now and I think that we followed our ideas. This was essentially about our offensive process, where we played really well and with strong personality.
“Anyway, we made some defensive mistakes and we paid a high price because for that. As a conclusion, the game was good for us and it is important to play as we played.
“But of course, we need to improve certain things and understand certain things. We cannot commit some mistakes.
“It is very difficult to recover after that.”
