The five-times champions rarely hit the heights against tough, dogged opponents who had qualification hopes of their own but, in this World Cup of shocks and late drama, Brazil will be delighted to have made it through a potentially awkward game with the minimum of fuss.
The victory, and Switzerland´s 2-2 draw with Costa Rica, meant Brazil finished top of Group E on seven points, two ahead of the Swiss who will face Sweden in the last 16. Serbia ended third on three points and are eliminated along with Costa Rica.
Brazil took a while to find their stride against a physical Serbian side who briefly rattled their illustrious rivals, but once Paulinho put them ahead after 36 minutes they always looked comfortable and Silva´s 68th-minute header settled it.
"We don´t live by expectation, we live by reality," Brazil coach Tite said when asked how he felt about his team now being tournament favourites.
"Because we did so well during the qualifiers and friendlies we created an excessively high sense of expectation, but the World Cup is a new cycle, a new format," he added.
"We are a team who withstand pressure, who have high-quality substitutes.
We look at getting stronger and improving.
"Playing hours after holders Germany suffered their shock exit after a 2-0 defeat by South Korea, Brazil were desperate to stamp their authority on a tournament where World Cup pedigree has counted for so little.
They had yet to click in their earlier games, where they limply drew 1-1 with Switzerland and needed two stoppage-time goals to beat Costa Rica, and they didn´t exactly sparkle in the first half-hour on Wednesday.
Lofted pass
However, a superb lofted pass from just inside his own half by the outstanding Philippe Coutinho sent Paulinho clear and he stretched high to toe the ball over goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic and ease the pressure.
Brazil´s often-overlooked defence, which has now conceded only three goals in 13 games, did still have to stand up strongly against a Serbian side whose only real threat looked to be an aerial assault.
Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic roused the Serbian fans around the hour when he went close with two headers but that brief flurry proved their high-water mark as Silva finished it when he rose high to thump home a Neymar corner.
That assist was a frustrated Neymar´s major contribution as he fired one shot at Stojkovic´s legs after a 70-metre counter-attack, bounced another over the bar and saw the keeper palm clear his final effort of a night where he was routinely bullied off the ball and lost possession countless times.
It was not his greatest performance, nor Brazil´s, but it was more than enough and they march on and remain the team everyone else will want to avoid.
"We were on the front foot in the first half except for the moment when Brazil scored," said a somewhat optimistic Serbia coach Mladen Krstajic.
"It´s very difficult to play such an open game against such a football powerhouse like Brazil and these are the moments when the individual qualities of their players come through."
Switzerland seal place in World Cup last 16 after draw with Costa Rica
After a week in which not much football has been discussed, Switzerland were probably just grateful to get this game out of the way without any disasters. Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri’s potential suspensions for their, shall we say, “politically spicy” celebrations against Serbia dominated the pre-match debate, and while the pair were ultimately allowed to play, for long spells they looked like a team who had spent the build-up with unwanted distractions.
Serbia’s defeat by Brazil meant Switzerland could have lost against Costa Rica and still qualified but while they drew this game, it was not a performance that will have Sweden, their second-round opponents, quivering in fear. They will also have to face Sweden without two key defenders: Fabian Schar and Stephan Lichtsteiner are suspended having picked up their second bookings of the tournament.
“No,” was the midfielder Valon Behrami’s blunt response when asked if he was happy with their performance. “We’re not happy. The point is OK, but we suffered too much in this game. We have to be 100% all the time. We should learn a lot tonight – it’s difficult to go into the next round with this mentality.”
Goals from Blerim Dzemaili and Josip Drmic got a point for the Swiss, although the already eliminated Costa Rica were much the more entertaining participant in the game, managing their first goals of the World Cup thanks to Kendall Waston and an incredibly unfortunate own-goal by the goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
Indeed, it might have been a little frustrating for observers of Costa Rica that they played their best football having already been knocked out. “It’s different to play when there’s nothing at stake,” the manager, Óscar Ramírez afterwards. “The team played without pressure, more freely, but we have always fought. We gave our best every single time.”
They could have been two up in the opening five minutes had it not been for Sommer. He made a series of fine saves throughout but the pick of them came when Celso Borges thumped a header towards the bottom corner, only for him to somehow claw it away, diving fully to his right. It was one of those that looked like a glitch in a film: it took a moment to work out why the ball was not nestling in the net.
Switzerland looked disjointed in attack and distracted in midfield: both Xhaka and Shaqiri, who were hit with fines rather than suspensions for their actions in the Serbia game, might as well have been absent for all the good they did.
But, as seems appropriate in a World Cup that has not made a huge amount of sense so far, they took the lead just after the half‑hour. Breel Embolo nodded down a cross at the far post and Dzemaili was there in the middle to force it home. It was a remarkably simple goal, to the point that it made a mockery of their previous inertia.
Sommer – the Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper who takes his mind off the pressures of the modern game by writing a blog about gourmet cooking – made another fine save from Daniel Colindres, and at points in the first half it looked like he was the only Swiss player who realised this was a World Cup game.
Until just before the hour Costa Rica had been the only team who had not scored in Russia, but they got their first when Waston, unencumbered by the inconvenience of being marked to any great effect, headed in from a Joel Campbell corner.
From there the game might have wound down into irrelevance, but the final 10 minutes were frantic. Firstly Drmic looked to have won it for Switzerland, then Costa Rica were given a penalty only for an offside to rule it out. But a minute later the occasional Arsenal forward Campbell was taken down just inside the area and an actual spot-kick was given. Bryan Ruiz struck the penalty, it hit the bar and rebounded in off the hideously unlucky Sommer.
“We have to perform better than today, like we did in the first two games,” the Switzerland manager, Vladimir Petkovic, said afterwards. “I have no doubt at all we can be better against Sweden.” If not, the second round will be as far as they get.
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