KEIR RADNEDGE in DOHA: No Neymar. No idea. Not much, anyway. Now that favourites Brazil are assured of entry into the Round of 16 the moment may be appropriate to note that this World Cup will be remembered for many reasons but high quality of football will not be among them.

The 2022 finals have brought a number of entertaining shocks and several harum-scarum goal chases but class? Not yet anyway. Brazil’s inability to put a smile on the ball’s face in their 1-0 win over Switzerland says it all.

Ultimately they scrambled through to victory in their second Group F outing largely because the Swiss were even more creatively incapable. Casemiro owned the honour of the goal on an assist from Vinicus Jr, his former team-mate at Real Madrid. Relief for Brazil and also for the organisers’ need for the big names to progress to paint the best gloss on the occasion.

Group matches can often be awkward, forgettable affairs and this one ranks in that anonymous collection.

Even its most intriguing issue was a negative one, concerning Brazil’s ability to live up to the usual hype without the injured Neymar to imagine, irritate and create all his usual distractive firestorms. The answer is that they can cope as far as it goes but will not want to enter the knockout stage without him.

The first half saw Brazil unable to make life seriously difficult for the tournament-hardened Yann Sommer in Switzerland’s goal. He made one excellent reflex save from Vinicius Junior in the 20th minute after Raphinha skimmed over an awkward cross from the right but that was all.

Switzerland began the second half trying to exert modest pressure of their own but without causing Alisson serious problems.

Brazil thought they had scored in the 63rd minute when Casemiro slid the ball wide for Vinicius Junior to evade one last Swiss tackle and score but the goal was ruled out for offside back in the middle of the pitch.

The eventual breathrough arrived in the 83rd minute. Vinicus was again the provider and Casemiro the scorer with a glorious swipe into the roof of the helpless Sommer’s net. Job done but Brazil can play much better and will hope fervently to do so.

Cameroon, also in Group G, maintained their bid to reach the last 16 by battling back from two goals down to draw a six-goal thriller with Serbia.

Portugal progressed to the Round of 16 by defeating Uruguay 2-0. Bruno Fernandes scored both goals, the second from a penalty cruelly awarded against Jose Maria Gimenez for handball when he merely reached out to cushion his fall.

Ghana won the other match by an exhilarating 3-2 against Korea Republic. The Ghanaians, to qualify, need to beat Uruguay. The clash will provide them with a belated opportunity of World Cup vengeance over the Celeste who defeated them controversially in the 2010 quarter-finals in South Africa.

ends