Brazil beat Portugal 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-17) - duration 1:13
20-Jul, start time: 10:05, end time: 11:18 - Attendance: 8,000 Brazil twice victorious over Portugal
Brazil made a clean sweep of its Intercontinental Round Four tie against Portugal this weekend with a second victory over the Portuguese. They scored a comfortable 3-0 victory in just one hour 13 minutes before a crowd of 8,000 and rarely looked challenged against the visitors. The Brazilian National team opened strongly and immediately ran up an eight-point lead. Although they let their concentration slip in the middle of the set, they still waltzed through, applying more and more service pressure on the Portuguese to clean up 25-14. Brazil charged on relentlessly, using their excellent service as their heavy weapon and increasing their defence at the net with powerful blocking. the pressure seemed to upset the Portuguese side, who slipped into a series of errors from which they seemed powerless to recover. The Brazilians sealed the second set 25-16 and charged relentlessly into the final one. By then the Portuguese could find no answers to the pressure of the titleholders and came away empty-handed. /mh
