Watch: A 7-1 hammering again, but this time Brazil are on the right side (plus: many more goals)
The Selecao finally announced their arrival at the Copa America Centenario by dismantling Haiti.
Haiti were literally played off the park. A smarting Brazil, after looking dull in their goalless draw against Ecuador, decided to show the world that they can still play joga bonito after all. And it was Haiti at the receiving end.
Liverpool's Phillipe Coutinho was the star. He cut in from the right and smashed home a long-range effort in the 14th minute. Fifteen minutes, and Haiti's defence were cut to shreds, with Coutinho coolly tapped it in for his second. Just before half-time, the Haiti goalkeeper inexplicably threw the ball straight to Dani Alves, who, needing no coaxing, crossed it in perfectly for Renato Augusto to head home.
The carnage continued after half-time. Brazil were showing off different ways to score now. This time, from a perfect through-ball from Elias, perfectly latched on to by Gabriel. 4-0. And then even substitute Lima got into the act with a free header in the 67th to make it 5-0.
Credit to Haiti that they did manage to capitalise on a rare Brazilian defensive lapse to score at least one goal. But that only spurred the Selecao on. Now the initiators of the rout returned to pick up the pieces – Augusto got his second by turning home a loose ball in the last few minutes. And finally Coutinho returned to get a deserved hat-trick, beating the keeper with his last kick of the game.
The final score: 7-1. It won't bring back bad memories for Brazil, though.
The hammering also helped Brazil move into top spot in Group B, but they were helped as Ecuador and Peru shared honours in another pulsating game. Peru started off scintillatingly well – Christian Cueva scored what's already being called the goal of the tournament, the ball curving phenomenally to give Peru a 1-0 lead. And Edison Flores also showed a lovely turn eight minutes later to give Peru a 2-0 lead in the 13th minute.
But Ecuador grew into the game and pulled it back, thanks to Antonio Valencia's immaculate lob over the Peruvian defence to Enner Valencia, who took a touch to chest it down and put it into the net. Three minutes into the second half, Ecuador broke through again as Jefferson Montero was played in. He laid it off to Miller Bolanos, who equalised. The scoreline stayed at 2-2.
Wednesday's games also saw plenty of goalmouth action. The United States shook off their opening game loss against Colombia to bury Costa Rica 4-0, with Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Graham Zusi all getting in on the action.
And elsewhere, Colombia, the world's third-ranked team, became the first team to book a spot in the quarter-finals after they saw off Paraguay 2-1. Colombia's victory was helped by a star performance from James Rodriguez, who had an assist in the first goal and scored the second with an exceptional shot.