Brazil entered the tournament as the leading contenders, with a cadre of stars including Porto striker Hulk, new PSG signing Thiago Silva, Internacional striker Leandro Damião—the tournament's top scorer—and Santos wunderkind Neymar. But when they met Mexico at Wembley, it was El Tri forward Oribe Peralta who stole the show.
Peralta, who plays his club ball at Santos Laguna, needed only 28 seconds and a mistake from Brazilian defender Rafael to put Mexico ahead. When Rafael tried to play the ball out of the back, it was stolen by Javier Aquino, who passed it to Peralta for the opening goal.
Stunned by the quick reversal, Brazil seemed to play on their heels for most of the match. Although they had scored three goals in every game of the tournament up to that point, they could not crack the Mexican defense and, in the 75th minute, they fell further behind as Peralta struck again, this time with a header off a free kick.
Hulk, who had come on as a substitute in the 32nd minute, eventually found the net with a strike in the first minute of stoppage time, but it was too late to do anything but offer a little consolation.
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