JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Brazil coach Dunga is taking a lot of positives from how the team handled adversity in their convincing win over Ivory Coast, saying the squad has become stronger for the second round of the World Cup.

Brazil played well to defeat Ivory Coast 3-1 on Sunday and advanced to the last 16 with one match to spare in Group G, but the Ivorians played a physical match that could have created difficulties for the Brazilians.

“The players have passed a tough test,” Dunga said. “They showed a lot of maturity because they got hit from the beginning to the end and never hit back.”

The Ivorians played with intensity, coming in with hard tackles and posing a physical challenge the Brazilians are not used to facing. There were hard fouls from both sides and players confronted each other several times at Soccer City Stadium. Ivory Coast made 23 fouls, compared to 17 for Brazil.

“I always tell my players that they have to play hard, but they have to play football,” Dunga said. “If we lose focus and start getting into a shouting match with the opponents we are not going to be able to play as well as we can.”

Dunga said the maturity showed against the Ivorians may give Brazil a much-needed edge for the remainder of the competition. The only downside of the match was the late ejection of Kaka, which the coach said was “unfair”.

Kaka was sent off in the 88th minute for a second yellow card, infuriating Dunga and the rest of the Brazilian players.

“(The match) was very complicated, very physical and with a lot of fouls,” Dunga said. “Everyone who likes football cannot accept what happened. Those in charge of controlling the spectacle need to know what is football and what is not. It’s hard to play football with art like everybody asks for if the referee allows this to happen.”

The former defensive midfielder known for his tough play said he would have loved to be playing in the match refereed by France’s Stephane Lannoy on Sunday.

“I would be very comfortable in a match like that, the referee would even come congratulate me at the end,” he said.

Ivory Coast’s Kader Keita appeared to run into Kaka while going for a ball, but the Africans were upset with the play because they said Kaka dropped his right elbow as Keita moved in.

Brazil will play the round of 16 against a team from Group H, which has European champion Spain, Chile, Switzerland and Honduras.