CONFEDERATIONS CUP FINAL : Brazil v Spain from the Iconic Maracana Stadium in Rio
45mins: Half-time - Brazil 2 Spain 0
The competition that acts as a warm-up for next year's World Cup has been played amid huge public unrest in the host nation with protests and violent clashes marring the streets of many Brazilian cities.
But on the pitch Brazil's samba style has been alive and kicking with Barcelona-bound Neymar showing why the Catalan club spent £50m to lure him to La Liga. Spain have continued an excellent run of form that sees them unbeaten in 29 competitive matches since the loss to Switzerland in their first match of the 2010 World Cup.
Incredibly, this match is only the second time the two sides have met in the last 23 years, with that single friendly in 1999 ending in a 0-0 draw. Kick off is at 11pm.
45mins: Half-time - Brazil 2 Spain 0
An ideal half of football from the host nation. They've executed their pressing and counter-attacking game perfectly.
It'll be interesting to see how the Spanish come out at half-time. Interesting team talk for Vicente del Bosque, it won't be many times he's had to rally his troops from a two-goal deficit.
44mins: Goal! Brazil 2 Spain 0
Neymar and Oscar produce a nice little bit of interplay, Neymar wins himself some space and Oscar finds him again. The boy wonder takes one touch to get it out of his feet and absolutely thumps it beyond Casillas.
Brilliant finish from a player who has announced himself on the world stage in this tournament.
43mins: Good play from Oscar and Hulk releases Oscar, but his cross is straight into the arms of Casillas. The striker is proving too much for Pique and Ramos to handle at the moment, he's full of running.
Thump: Neymar hammers an unstoppable shot beyond Iker Casillas to make it 2-0
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Jubilant: Neymar dives into the crowd to celebrate with fans inside the Maracana
41mins: Unbelievable save on the line from Luiz! A smart one-two from Chelsea mates Torres and Mata frees the little master and his ball across to Pedro, who is all alone is perfect.
Bearing down on goal the Barcelona winger beats Julio Cesar with a left-footed strike but David Luiz rushes back to make a brilliant interception on the line.
40mins: Alba makes a great run down the left but Ramos over-hits the ball and it rolls out of play. Missed opportunity there.
37mins: Spain have had 59 per cent of possession but the Brazilians seem happy to let them have it, they look extremely dangerous on the counter.
35min: The Spanish are trying to quicken their tempo here, and the Brazilians are starting to dive in a little bit - they can't keep giving away silly free-kicks around the penalty box.
32mins: Brazil on the counter-attack after Spain gave the ball away again, Neymar breaks forward and plays in a perfect through-ball to Fred but the striker is thwarted by Casillas, excellent save from the keeper.
From the corner Fred rises highest but puts what was a free header wide. The earlier ball from Neymar was absolutely perfect.
30mins: Neymar and Hulk hover over the free-kick... Very clever from the Brazilians, Neymar runs up but rolls it back to Hulk who hammers his shot, but it flies over from 20 yards.
28mins: Spain are all at sea, hulk plays a lovely ball through to Oscar and he's brought down just outside the box by Sergio Ramos. May have been more but the Real Madrid skipper gets away with a booking.
27mins: Oscar wildly lunges at Iniesta but Kuipers waves him away, definitely a booking for me.
Lucky boy: Alvaro Arbeloa should have been sent off for his challenge on Neymar - the pair was completely alone on the halfway line when the Real Madrid defender brought him down
25mins: Brilliant defensive work from Brazil gets them the ball back, and moving forward quickly Fred gets time to unleash a shot from outside the box. He can't make a good connection and it goes wide.
23mins: Sergio Ramos takes a free-kick from more than 40 yard... and it dribbles harmlessly wide. Wasted.
20min: Spain are starting to look a little bit more like themselves now. After a neat period of passing, Andres Iniesta lets rip from 30 yards and Julio Cesar, just to be safe, turns it round the corner.
From the resulting corner Fernando Torres heads wide.
15min: Arbeloa should have been sent off there! Brazil win back possession and Neymar, standing completely alone with the defender on the halfway line is brought down cynically by the Real Madrid right back.
Neymar adds a bit of unnecessary histrionics but Kuipers let's Spain off by only brandishing a yellow card.
Clashes: Police fire tear gas at protesters outside the Maracana
13min: After more brilliant pressing the ball falls to Paulinho, the Spurs-bound midfielder tries the outrageous, and his 35-yard lob nearly catches Casillas cold.
12min: Brazil have taken a page out of Spain's book and are swarming on each of their players when in possession. Great pressing from the host nation.
10min: What an absolutely breathless opening. If it stays like this we'll all be happy we stayed up late to watch.
8min: Great chance for Brazil, Arbeloa's interception falls kindly for Fred, and he flicks it back to Oscar - inside the box the Chelsea man drills a low shot for the corner, but he drags it a yard wide.
He should have scored there.
Bundled: Fred scores for the hosts
7min: Shouts of hand-ball by the Spanish, but they are waved away by Kuipers, would have been soft if given.
5min: The Brazilians are clearly buoyed by the huge noise generated from the home crowd.
Spain, a team who have seen and done it all at international level, look rattled.
2min: Goal! Brazil 1 Spain 0
Fred scores what must be one of the scrappiest goals in Brazilian football history.
Iker Casillas and Alvaro Arbeloa get mixed up after a cross comes in and Fred, laying on the ground, sticks a leg out to pop the ball beyond Casillas from just a yard out.
Terrible defending from the Spanish.
Early lead: Fred scores after just two minutes following some terrible defending by Spain
Great start: Fred celebrates with Neymar
23.00pm: Kick-off.
And we're underway inside the Maracana.
22.58pm: It appears, unfortunately, that protests on the streets of Rio have taken a slightly nasty turn.
22.55pm: In the build up each side talked up the strengths of the other. Brazilian wonderkid Neymar claimed 'Spain are the best side in the world,' while Andres Iniesta hit back with some praise of his own.
'Brazil are favourites because they are playing at home and I don't know how many thousand people will be behind them,' he said.
Just who is going to win what should be a titanic clash? I'm not brave enough to definitively call it, but think Spain have the slight edge over what is a young and defensively weak Brazil team.
22.50pm: Where Brazil do have an edge is in terms of rest. They played their semi-final a day earlier than their opponents and only had to travel 450kms. In comparison to Spain who flew the 2,500km from Fortaleza to get to Rio de Janeiro.
We've got just 10minutes until kick-off.
22.45pm: Moving swiftly on, of course it's an official closing party so weird and wonderful dance acts are out in force inside the Maracana. Outside, the atmosphere is slightly more hostile as a reported 10,000 protesters have gathered around the stadium.
It has so far been non-violent.
22.41pm: As we're on the subject of penalties, a not-so-fun fact for all you England fans out there: it's 15 years to the day since England lost to Argentina at World Cup 98.
Prepared: The Spanish (above) and Brazilian (below) squads warm-up before the match
22.38pm: Despite being the current World and European champions, Spain have actually never won the Confederations Cup. Brazil are going for their third successive victory after wins in 2005 and 2009; they also won the tournament back in 1997.
If the match was to keep us all from going to bed and head to penalties, then the Spanish have a decided edge - they have won their last three shoot-outs, missing just two of 17 penalties.
Brazil, meanwhile, failed to score in their last shoot-out at a major competition, missing all four as they lost 2-0 to Paraguay in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Copa America.
Non-hostile: A reported 10,000 non-violent protesters have gathered outside the Maracana
Different atmosphere: But inside the closing party is in full flow
10.35pm: The meeting between the two sides is surprisingly the first since 1999 (that ended in a 0-0 draw) and only the second in 23 years.
Brazil have won four of those eight meetings, with two draws and two losses, and Spain have only won one of the competive encounters all the way back in the 1934 World Cup.
But despite their meagre head-to-head record, Spain enter this match in wonderful form. They are unbeaten in 29 competitive matches, winning 24 of those, stretching back to their 1-0 group stage defeat to Switzerland at the 2010 World Cup, and also undefeated in all of their last 26 matches since losing to England at Wembley in 2011.
10.33pm: And how did the teams get here? Each won all of their group games at a relative canter, but the semi-final stage provided stiffer opposition for both.
Brazil had to wait for a late header from Tottenham-bound Paulinho to earn a 2-1 win over Uruguay, while Spain narrowly beat Italy with Leonardo Bonucci the only man not to hit a perfect penalty out of 14 taken.
Ready: Fans inside the Maracana looking forward to kick-off
10.28pm: Good evening and welcome to
Sportsmail's live coverage of the Confederations Cup final. In what many will describe as their ideal final, the match will also give us an indication of the two teams' relative strengths when the World Cup rolls around in 12 months.
After a highly entertaining third-place play-off earlier, where Gianluigi Buffon unbelievably saved three penalties in the shoot-out as Italy beat Uruguay, we should have high hopes that Brazil and Spain will put on a great encounter in front of a packed crowd at the Maracana.
Luiz Felipe Scolari names an unchanged side but Vicente del Bosque makes one switch - Chelsea maestro Juan Mata has been named chief string-puller instead of Manchester City's David Silva.
Both teams line up in the 4-3-3/4-5-1/4-2-3-1 that dominates modern football.
Brazil: Júlio César, Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo; Gustavo, Paulinho, Oscar, Hulk, Neymar, Fred.
Spain: Casillas, Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta; Pedro, Mata, Torres.
Star: Neymar's has put in a series of excellent performances and scored three goals
Dynamo: Xavi continues to keep this brilliant Spain team ticking
PhOtOs-Brazil WINS Confederation Cup 2013-Brazil 3 Spain 0
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