Miranda scores injury-time winner as Brazil edge Argentina in friendly tournament

Miranda headed an injury-time winner as Brazil snatched a dramatic 1-0 win over South American rivals Argentina to win the four-team friendly tournament in front of a sell-out crowd in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.

Unmarked at the near post, the Inter-Milan centre-back headed home a Neymar cross in the 93^rd minute to bring up the win after what had been a drab performance from both sides across the 90 minutes of play.

Brazil started with their full-throttled team that included Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Jesus alongside Neymar in the attack. Argentina, on the other hand, had a host of stars missing with Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel di Maria all left out, while Lionel Messi has not featured even once after the World Cup disappointment.

It was understandable that Argentina hence chose to play defensively with their only chances coming when Paulo Dybala’s free-kick went inches wide off the right post, while Leandro Paredes’ swerving drive beat goalkeeper Alisson Becker but went out wide.

Miranda could have earlier scored twice but his header once flew over, while in the next his shot was blocked off the line by Nicolas Otamendi in the first half. Manchester City’s Otamendi was also at hand to divert substitute Richarlison’s shot in the final minute of play before Miranda struck from the corner.

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