Marcelo: VAR not an excuse for Brazil draw

Brazil captain Marcelo said his side's World Cup opening draw against Switzerland was not due to refereeing decisions.

Brazil captain Marcelo in action against Switzerland in the Group E opener in Rostov.

Refereeing decisions were not the reason Brazil could only record a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in its World Cup bow, says captain Marcelo.

After Philippe Coutinho curled in a beauty to open the scoring for Tite's men, Steven Zuber nodded in the equaliser for Switzerland in Sunday's Group E meeting.

Brazil felt Zuber pushed Miranda to create space in the box before beating Alisson with his headed effort at Rostov Arena, but the goal survived a VAR review.

Gabriel Jesus also appealed for a penalty when he clashed with Manuel Akanji in the box, but Marcelo did not want to make excuses for Brazil's inability to turn a dominant display into three points.

"Miranda's move, I'm not going to talk about the referee, but he said they were checking," Marcelo said to Globo. "He did not want to look at the big screen, but it is not an excuse for the draw," he added.

READ: Brazil 1 - 1 Switzerland - Match Report

For his part, Miranda also indicated Brazil ought to move on from the incident, with games against Costa Rica and Serbia to come.

"Maybe, if I had thrown myself, I could point to the push. There's the video referee, they've seen it, but they did not think it was for that. The draw does not shake us, big teams have also started by losing. Our thinking is game by game," the centre-back said.