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Robinho and Ronaldinho
Samba style: Robinho is congratulated by Ronaldinho after scoring Brazil's second goal against Italy

City boys on target as Brazilians light up the capital

Tom Collomosse
11 Feb 2009


Brazil coach Dunga praised Manchester City duo Robinho and Elano after they fired the South Americans to a 2-0 win over Italy at Emirates Stadium last night.

It was the sixth time that Brazil have played in London in the last two and a half years and 60,000 turned up to watch Robinho set up the first for his club-mate Elano before doubling Brazil's lead in the 27th minute.

"Everyone's knows Robinho's qualities," said Dunga, who has now been in charge of more matches in the English capital than he has in his home country.

"We showed good personality and Robinho showed it as well - he fits well in the Brazil team."

Elano was in impressive form, leaving Dunga puzzled as to why he has been so often left out of Mark Hughes' City team this season.

"His personal situation at the club is difficult and it can make life more difficult in the national squad," he added. "But Elano has always played very well with us.

"However, he also needs to be in good physical condition to play. I don't want to talk too much about him because I want to protect him.

"He is a very skilled player, he has a lot of quality and also knows how to mark a player and find his team-mates as well as score goals himself."

Italy coach Marcello Lippi did not feel the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game and thought Fabio Grosso's early effort was incorrectly disallowed for offside.

"Apart from the two goals, [Brazil] did little else," said Lippi. "Grosso's goal was valid and it would have been a different game if that had stood.

"We had three or four more chances - Julio Cesar pulled off some amazing saves. I think we might even have had more chances than them."

Lippi missed out on the chance to set a new world record for most consecutive international games unbeaten as a coach.

He drew level on 31 games with Javier Clemente and Alfio Basile late last year but could not surpass their mark.

"It stings because I'm not used to defeat," he added. "But at the least the record was stopped losing to a team like Brazil."

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