A superb piece of finishing by Ronaldo fired Brazil into a World Cup final meeting with Germany and shattered Turkey's dreams of glory in Saitama today.
The Inter Milan striker's 49th-minute goal, his sixth in six games in Korea and Japan, was enough to secure Brazil's place in their third successive final and seventh in all.
Defensive midfielder Gilberto Silva was the architect of Brazil's winner with a powerful run out of defence down the left.
His pass found Ronaldo who spun away from his marker Tugay Kerimoglu and, with the Turkish defence backpedalling furiously, toe-poked a shot beyond the sprawling Rustu Recber and in off the far post.
Forced to push forward in search of the equaliser, Turkey began to leave holes at the back.
Just minutes after Ronaldo had opened the scoring, he broke clear on the right to set up Edilson only to see his striking partner have the ball pinched off his toe by a last gasp tackle from Fatih Akyel.
Kleberson should have killed off the Turks in the 61st minute when he was left with only Rustu to beat after more good work from Ronaldo but the midfielder fired straight at the goalkeeper.
Turkish coach Senol Gunes threw on Ilhan Mansiz as an extra forward for the last half hour and the substitute helped to ensure the Brazilian defence suffered some nervous moments in the closing stages of the match.
The nearest the Turks came to snatching an equaliser was in the 81st minute when captain Hakan Sukur latched on to Hasan Sas's free-kick with a volley on the turn that Brazilian keeper Marcos did well to parry.
AFP