Substitute Daniel Alves broke South African hearts with an 88th-minute free-kick for Brazil that dumped the hosts out of the Confederations Cup with a narrow 1-0 semi-final victory in Johannesburg.

The Barcelona right-back, who only came on for the closing stages of the game, smashed in a powerful 18-yard set-piece from the left to stun the huge crowd at the Ellis Park Stadium after their side had performed impressively for most parts of the game.

However, they eventually fell short and will now meet Spain in the third-place play-off on Sunday, while the Selecao will face the United States in the tournament finale.

Luis Fabiano created the first opening after 13 minutes when he fired a low shot from inside the box that forced Itumeleng Khune to dive low to his left.

The hosts responded with Siboniso Gaxa beating Andre Santos to a 50-50 ball on the right and then unleashing a 20-yard cross-goal shot that flew agonisingly across the face of goal.

They continued to hold their own with Aaron Mokoena then missing a gilt-edge chance in the 21st minute - the South Africa captain received a beautifully floated free-kick from Modise on the right, but put the close-range header over.

Andre Santos then shot straight at Khune with a long-range effort after bringing the ball down nicely, with the South Americans largely restricted to shooting from distance.

Kaka followed that up by drifting infield from the left and curling narrowly wide, while at the other end, Pienaar finally decided to shoot and superbly he did - Julio Cesar getting the faintest of touches to a curling shot from outside of the box that ended up wide.

With nine minutes remaining, Dunga looked to change things by introducing Daniel Alves for Andre Santos and for whatever reason he made the change, it seemed to work.

Then, as time ran out, Mokoena brought down Ramires almost exactly on the 18-yard line and the Barcelona right-back smashed the resultant free-kick, which took a slight deflection off Pienaar, into the top corner leaving the almost 50,000 Ellis Park crowd massively disappointed.