Victory without magic. Brazil tamed Haiti and knocked them out of the World Cup

Brazil qualified for the round of 32 and topped Group C with a comfortable 3-0 win over Haiti in a match where Matheus Cunha scored a brace and Vinicius Junior scored a goal to make Haiti the first team to be officially eliminated from the 2026 World Cup.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti made adjustments to the squad after the 1-1 draw against Morocco, fielding Danilo at right-back and preferring Cunha to Igor Thiago in attack, while the Haitian national team strengthened the defense with Jean-Kevin Duvernay and selected Jose Casimir in attack to build on the counter-attacks.

The Seleção struggled to find their rhythm against a defensively organized side as Rafinha’s goal was disallowed for offside in the 12th minute after a superb pass from Bruno Guimaraes, before the Barcelona man wasted a clear chance with a perfect shot that went wide of the net in the 22nd minute.

But the third chance proved decisive as Cunha opened the scoring after goalkeeper Johnny Placide blocked Vinicius Junior’s shot and Hans Delcroix passed the ball to the striker who converted it into the net (1-0) (23rd minute).

Despite taking the lead, Brazil temporarily retreated, but Haiti failed to take advantage of their period of control, so Cunha came back and doubled the lead after a great pass from Vinicius Junior (2-0) (36 minutes), before the Brazilian star ended the first half with a third goal with a perfect low strike from Lucas Paqueta’s pass (3-0, 5).

Brazil took a more cautious approach in the second half with their comfortable lead allowing Haiti to apply pressure as the Grenadiers almost reduced the deficit from Ricardo Addi’s corner, but Alisson Becker made a brilliant save (63rd minute) before Duverne’s shot went wide of the left post seconds later (65th minute).

Brazil responded with Gabriel Martinelli’s powerful shot hitting the post (68th minute) and Andrek’s goal disallowed for offside (78th minute), so the match ended in a deserved victory for Brazil.

With this result, Brazil increased their score to 4 points and topped Group C, while Haiti exited the tournament after their second consecutive defeat, becoming the first team to be officially eliminated from the World Cup.

It is noteworthy that after a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Scotland in the other group match, Morocco is also in second place with 4 points, while Brazil is set to meet Scotland in the finals to decide the leader.