Ronaldo, who kept his starting position despite his disappointing performance in beating Croatia 1-0, gathered the ball on the left-hand corner of the area and three defenders immediately circled him.

He spotted Adriano and played a square ball to his strike partner which struck low into the corner of the net.

Harry Kewell, Australia's second half substitute, could have make it 1-1 in the 57th minute, but the Liverpool player shot high above the crossbar of Brazil's unguarded goal.

After Australia had threatened to equalise on several more occasions, substitute Fred tapped home into an empty net in the 89th minute after fellow substitute Robinho's drive crashed off the post.

In the 42nd minute, Ronaldo showed a glimpse of his strength by shrugging off the attentions of Vince Grella and, with very little back lift, fired in a shot that was wide of Aussie goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer's left post.

He was finally replaced by his Real Madrid teammate Robinho in the 72nd minute.

Brazil booked their spot in the second round and maintained their 100 percent record, but it is a flattering result against a hard-working Australia side.

Brazil coach Parreira said they deserved the win despite the hard work.

Parreira said: "We are happy to have qualified. It's a deserved win. We imposed both our style of playing, passing the ball around, and also imposed ourselves physically."

Parreira warned: "It is normal that we are not in top form. We only played three friendlies before the finals and we are getting better and better little by little.

"We played better than we did against Croatia and we will play even better in the next one (against Japan)."

Australia, who crushed Japan 3-1 in the last game, can still qualify from the group should they beat Croatia in their last group game.

Australia coach Guus Hiddink is still confident that Australia can get through to the next round.

The Dutchman said: "We have a chance to qualify for the second round and that would be a tremendous achievement for Australia.

"Even after this loss, morale is very high and we still hope to go through. The players are eager and ambitious."

He added: "In the second half we had two or three opportunities but we failed to get the goal. We can be proud of the way we played. We made the world champions have to counter-attack."

In Nuremberg, Croatia missed a penalty and a slew of chances to draw 0-0 with Japan in their second World Cup Group F tie.

The penalty was awarded in the 20th minute when Croatia striker Dado Prso was brought down in the box.

Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi made a brilliant save diving to his left to keep Darijo Srna's penalty out.

In the 27th minute, Croatia playmaker Niko Kranjcar smashed a shot against the crossbar from 25 yards out, and the ball rebounded to safety.

Japan's best chance came four minutes after the interval when Atsushi Yanagisawa missed a sitter from Akira Kaji's cross, mis-kicking with the goal wide open.

Japan coach Zico criticised World Cup organisers after his side played their second consecutive match in hot weather, in Nuremberg.

After a 3-1 loss in their opener to Australia, Japan drew 0-0 with Group F rivals Croatia and will need to beat Brazil in their final group game to stand a chance of making the last 16.

"It's a crime that we had to play in this heat again," said the Brazilian.

"Our last game was at 3pm too but they want to do it that way for television. I guess business is business."

Zico added: "We lost our way a little bit in the second half.

"But while you're still breathing you're still alive and we'll do all we can to stay alive."