Pretoria - Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano was on target on Sunday evening as he helped Brazil beat Italy 3-0 and eliminate the world champions from the Confederations Cup.
Brazil showed no mercy to the Italians from the start of the final Group B match played at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in front of more than 39 000 fans.
The 2006 Confederations Cup champions outplayed Italy through a brilliant combination of their two unstoppable strikers, Kaka, Robinho and attacking wingback, Maicon.
Kaka, who was playing behind the two deadly strikers, Robinho and Fabiano, was a marvel to watch in the middle of the park with his neat passes, overlapping and dribbling skills.
After squandering numerous goal-scoring opportunities created by Kaka, Fabiano corrected his mistakes by scoring Brazil's first goal in the 37th minute by intercepting Maicon's shot in the box.
He doubled the Brazilian lead in the 43rd minute following the great moves and excellent passes between Kaka and Robinho.
The Brazilian team, which has never lost to Italy since 1982, intensified their attack towards the end of the first half.
Robinho's cross to Ramires in the box saw defender Andrea Dossena scoring an own goal in the dying minute of the first half.
Dossena beat his own goal keeper, Buffon, while attempting to intercept the beautiful cross from Robinho.
The Italian, who went to the match with three points and three goals from two games, needed only two goals to reach the semi-finals of the tournament without relying on the results between Egypt and United States of America (USA).
The Italian journey to the semi-finals was first stopped by Egypt when they astonished them with a 1-0 victory.
Giuseppe Rossi unleashed two unstoppable rockets, but Brazilian goalkeeper was at the right place to make superb saves.
With Egypt's surprising 3-0 defeat to the USA in another match played at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium last night, one goal against Brazil would have been enough to qualify Italy instead of the Americans on goal difference.
In the semi-finals on Wednesday, the unpredictable USA will play against Spain at the Vodacom Park Stadium in Bloemfontein, while on Thursday Bafana Bafana will play against Brazil at Ellis Park.
