Peru end winless streak

The Copa America Centenario erupted into controversy on Sunday after a refereeing blunder sent Brazil crashing to a 1-0 defeat against Peru -- and out of the tournament.

The defeat left Brazil struggling to digest their worst performance in the Copa America since 1987, the last occasion the five-time world champions failed to make it past the group stage.

Brazil, needing only a draw to qualify for the quarter-finals as winners of Group B, looked to be on course for a place in the last eight with 15 minutes to go against Peru.

But a rare foray into Brazilian territory from Peru ended with Raul Ruidiaz bundling in Andy Polo's cross from the byline, appearing to use his arm to score.

Ruidiaz wheeled away to celebrate and Uruguayan referee Andres Cunha signalled for the goal.

Brazil's players protested furiously, swarming around Cunha in a bid to persuade the official to reverse his decision.

The protests appeared to have swayed Cunha, who looked to be frantically checking with the fourth official via his headpiece to determine whether the goal should stand.

Yet after a chaotic delay of around four minutes -- with players from both sides surrounding the referee -- Cunha ruled the goal should stand.

Multiple replays from different angles, however, showed that Ruidiaz had used his arm to knock the ball into the net past Brazil keeper Alisson.

Brazil pressed forward in the final closing minutes in an attempt to find an equaliser that would take them through but it was to no avail.

Elias squandered a golden chance from close range in injury time and Brazil's fate was sealed.

Peru will now play Colombia in the quarter-finals after finishing top of Group B.

Brazil coach Dunga lambasted the decision to allow Peru's goal.

"I am sure the Brazilian fans saw the game and saw how Brazil was eliminated," Brazil coach Dunga said.

"There is no way to anticipate imponderables. The team was not eliminated by anything to do with football," he added, criticizing the lengthy deliberations between the match officials which held up the game.

"I do not quite understand who or what the referee was consulting," Dunga said, adding that he had watched replays of the incident on screens in the Gillette Stadium.

"It was such a clear handball, but we have no influence over the referee," he said.

Peru coach Ricardo Gareca meanwhile insisted his side had deserved to win. "I thought we did enough to deserve to win," Gareca said, adding he had not had a clear view of the handball incident.

"I haven't seen it yet. I've heard some comments. But I never think too much about mistakes by officials," he said.

Brazil's early exit is certain to pile pressure on Dunga after what was a lacklustre tournament.

A 0-0 opening draw with Ecuador -- where a refereeing decision which might have given Ecuador a victory went in Brazil's favour -- was followed by a 7-1 drubbing of Haiti, arguably the weakest team in the tournament.

Australia broke Scottish hearts with a hardfought five-wicket victory in St Lucia on Saturday that sent the Scots home from the Twenty20 World Cup and title holders England through to the Super Eight stage.

After England's rain-disrupted victory over Namibia in Antigua earlier in the day, Scotland needed a draw, a washout or a first ever win over Australia to progress from Group B at the expense of their southern neighbours.

Clear skies at Gros Islet meant the Scots would be reliant on their cricketing skills and they made a good fist of it with 180-5 from their 20 overs highlighted by a quickfire 60 from Brandon McMullen and 42 not out from skipper Richie Berrington.

Australia, who had already booked their spot in the second round, will have been disappointed with their fielding and the start of their innings but Travis Head (68) and Marcus Stoinis (59) accelerated in the last 10 overs to help get them across the line.

"Scotland are a really good outfit, they took it down to the wire and it was a good chase in the end," said Australia captain Mitchell Marsh.

"The World Cup kind of starts again now, we're excited about what's to come."

Berrington, whose team depart because they had a lower net run rate than England, said the Scots were disappointed that they had not driven home their advantage.

"I thought we were in a pretty good position," he said.

"Unfortunately, we didn't execute for long enough. I think the guys can hold their heads high in regards to how they've played their cricket throughout the tournament."

Australia won the toss and elected to field first but after Ashton Agar had bowled opener Michael Jones in the first over, George Munsey and McMullen put together a partnership of 89 for the second wicket to lay a solid platform for Scotland.

Munsey holed out to midwicket for 35 off the bowling of Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa finally winkled out McMullen, who clubbed two sixes and six fours before Mitchell Starc sent him back with a diving catch.

Berrington took up the mantle but the Scots would have been disappointed to score only 42 runs in their final five overs as the Australian bowlers tightened the screws to make up for a fielding effort that had seen a flurry of dropped catches.

The Scots took some momentum into the Australian innings, however, and David Warner (1), Marsh (8) and Maxwell (11) were removed cheaply, the latter bowled by a peach of a delivery from left-arm spinner Mark Watt.

Opener Travis Head, however, was warming to the task and Marcus Stoinis joined in him a partnership of 80 for the third wicket that turned the tide.

Head decisively clubbed three sixes off successive legal deliveries from Safyaan Sharif soon and although the Scottish seamer immediately ended his innings, the Australians had the scent of victory in their nostrils.

Watt returned to remove Stoinis in the following over but Tim David and Matthew Wade got Australia across the line to silence the conspiracy theorists suggesting Australia would try to lose to remove England from the tournament.

France managed to overcome mistakes and imperfections in their World Cup final victory over Croatia with sheer mental strength to lift the trophy for the second time, coach Didier Deschamps said on Sunday.

France overpowered Croatia 4-2 to lift the trophy and Deschamps became only the third man, after Brazil's Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer to win it both as player and coach.

But they were made to sweat for about an hour and needed an own goal and a penalty to take the lead.

"My greatest source of pride is they had the right state of mind," Deschamps, who had captained France to the 1998 title, told reporters.

"Today there were imperfections, we did not do everything right but we had those mental and psychological qualities which were decisive for this World Cup."

France took the lead from a Mario Mandzukic own goal and they had to soak up a sustained Croatian offensive, including a 28th-minute equaliser, before going in front with a penalty.

They then struck twice midway through the second half to put the game beyond the Croats.

Deschamps said 14 of his players were World Cup newcomers but were ready to work towards a common goal and were mentally more mature than their age.

"Talent is not sufficient. You need the psychological and mental aspects. Any team is then able to climb mountains," Deschamps said.

"Sometimes I can be hard very hard with them but I do it for them and even though they are young they usually do listen."

Among the newcomers are Kylian Mbappe who was voted young player of the tournament and scored France's fourth goal.

"The collective is always important but there are individual players who have made the difference," he said, naming Mbappe and man-of-the-match Antoine Griezmann.

"Those 23 players will now be linked forever whatever happens. They will go different paths but will forever be linked together and from today nothing will be the same professionally because they are world champions.

"We will realise what has happened tomorrow," he said after his players stormed the news conference twice to douse him with champagne. "At the moment they do not know what it is to be world champions."

The 49-year-old coach, who also led France to the Euro 2016 final only to lose in Paris to Portugal, said that defeat may have been key to winning the World Cup.

"Maybe if we were Euro champions we would not have been world champions today. I learned a lot from that defeat," he said.

"The Euro final was different. We tried to stay relaxed this time and the players knew what they had to do and what was at stake."

Australian children with potentially deadly peanut allergies will be offered life-saving treatment in a nationwide programme touted as a world first.

Eligible babies will receive daily doses of peanut powder for two years to build up their tolerance, said officials announcing the initiative on Wednesday.

Over time, the infants will be given increasing doses in the hope of reducing their sensitivity to peanuts, under the supervision of doctors at 10 paediatric hospitals around the country.

It is the first national peanut allergy treatment programme offered in hospitals outside of a clinical trial setting, said Kirsten Perrett, head of oral immunotherapy at the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.

At the end of the two years, a food allergy test will determine if the treatment has led to a remission.

"Ultimately we want to change the trajectory of allergic disease in Australia so that more children can go to school without the risk of a life-threatening peanut reaction," Perrett said.

Previously, families have been told to ensure their children strictly avoid foods with peanuts.

Australian children have some of the highest rates of food allergies in the world.

Peanut allergies affect three percent of Australian children by the time they are 12 months old, government data shows.

Of those, only 20 percent will outgrow their allergy by the time they are teenagers.

Nine-month-old Hunter Chatwin, who is among those in the free treatment programme, started developing hives after eating peanut butter.

"We are taking part in the programme to try and improve his chance of being able to safely eat peanut in the future," Hunter's mother Kirsten said.

"Many families are desperate to protect their children from allergic reactions and anaphylaxis," she said.

"To have this programme available and free at public hospitals is a game-changer."

If successful, the programme will be rolled out more broadly, including in regional and remote areas.

Deaths from peanut allergies are rare in Australia, but almost 20 percent of the population has an allergic disease, data from Australia's leading allergy institute found.

This figure is estimated to grow by 70 percent by 2050, impacting 7.7 million Australians.

France were 2-1 ahead against Croatia at halftime in the World Cup final after a pulsating opening 45 minutes at the Luzhniki Stadium on Sunday.

France took the lead when Croatia forward Mario Mandzukic, who scored the extra-time winner over England in the semi-final, inadvertently headed home an Antoine Griezmann free-kick in the 18th minute for the first own goal in a World Cup final.

Croatia's Ivan Perisic, who had also scored in the semi-final, levelled with a powerful shot 10 minutes later after France had failed to clear a Luka Modric free-kick.

But Perisic was then responsible for conceding a penalty for handball that was give following a VAR decision and Griezmann coolly converted the spot-kick in the 38th to put the French back in front.

More to follow..