Brazil make heavy work of beating Saudi Arabia in friendly

AFP  |  Riyadh 

struggled to a 2-0 win over hosts in a performance on a muggy night in in a friendly international.

will next play arch-rivals on Tuesday.

Argentina, who will be without the rested Lionel Messi, beat 4-0 on Thursday.

will be the more concerned team ahead of Tuesday's showdown in as they failed to spark against the game Saudis, who almost found themselves a goal up after six minutes, before Casemiro hacked clear.

Jesus, who missed Brazil's friendly victories over the (2-0) and (5-0) last month, celebrated his return to the side with a goal just before half time.

Jesus saw a goal-bound header brilliantly saved by Saudi keeper before Neymar slipped him in to score in the 43rd minute.

Tottenham's almost made it two after another fine pass by Neymar.

Neymar came close himself a few minutes later with a shot from just outside the penalty area.

The Saudis ended the match with 10 men after Al-Owais was sent off with 10 minutes left for handling the ball outside the penalty area when pressured by Richarlison.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, October 13 2018. 10:30 IST