Midfielder Casemiro showed his misfiring strikers how to finish on Monday when he lashed in an unstoppable late shot to give Brazil a 1-0 win over Switzerland that sent them into the World Cup knockout stage with a game to spare.
A largely featureless game had been meandering towards a goalless draw when Casemiro struck seven minutes from time to take Brazil to six points at the top of Group G.
The absence of injured striker Neymar had hung like a shadow over a shoddy Brazil, with only a disallowed goal by Vinicius Jr bringing their huge support to life before the goal.
Brazil have six points, Switzerland three and Cameroon and Serbia, who drew 3-3 earlier on Monday, have one each - with all three teams still in the hunt to progress.
Earlier, Fred and Eder Militao replaced the injured Neymar and Danilo in the Brazil team.
Neymar and Danilo have been ruled out of the group stage by ankle injuries suffered in the team's opening 2-0 win over Serbia.
Brazil coach Tite went for power over finesse, choosing to pair Fred with his Manchester United team mate Casemiro to strengthen midfield, pushing Paqueta forward into a playmaking role, instead of bringing Rodrygo in up-front alongside Vinicius, Richarlison and Raphinha.
Real Madrid's versatile central defender Militao will replace Danilo at right back.
Swiss coach Murat Yasin made one change to the team that started the 1-0 win over Cameroon with Fabian Rieder replacing Xherdan Shaqiri.
Brazil
Alisson Becker; Eder Militao, Thiago Silva (c), Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Fred, Lucas Paqueta; Vinicius Junior, Raphinha, Richarlison
Switzerland:
Yann Sommer, Silvan Widmer, Nico Elvedi, Manuel Akanji, Breel Embolo, Remo Freuler, Granit Xhaka, Ricardo Rodriguez, Djibril Sow, Ruben Vargas, Fabian Rieder