Alves put through his own net at the start of the second half to give the feisty Swiss just reward for taking the match to the Confederations Cup champions.
Far from being overawed by facing a team who demolished Spain 3-0 in the Confederations Cup final in June, unsung Switzerland tweaked Brazilian nerves with hard tackling and cheeky skills which clearly unnerved the South Americans.
Xherdan Shaqiri produced an inspired performance for Switzerland as he upstaged Brazil forward Neymar who was jeered several times by the crowd after falling over and failing to win a free kick.
Brazil won all five matches at the Confederations Cup and beat France 3-0 in a friendly before that tournament.
Switzerland quickly got under the skin of the Brazilians as Stephan Lichtensteiner tangled with Neymar and Shaqiri jinked his way repeatedly around Brazilian defenders, who clearly did not enjoy being on the receiving end of some trickery.
Tempers frayed midway through the first half when a rash challenge by Neymar led to a scuffle on the touchline and yellow cards for the Brazilian and Valon Behrami.
Marcelo was then lucky to escape a booking for a rough tackle on Shaqiri.
Having threatened several times in the first half, Switzerland went ahead in the 47th minute when Hans Seferovic crossed from the right and Alves, under no real pressure, headed into his own goal at the far post.
Brazil nearly gave another goal away when goalkeeper Jefferson slipped as he attempted to clear an awkward Dante backpass, but he recovered just in time to scramble the ball away from the lurking Seferovic.
(Editing by Ed Osmond) Reuters Messaging: brian.homewood.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net. To sign up for our Global Sports Forum chatroom, click on https://forms.thomsonreuters.com/global_sports_forum
(Reporting by Brian Homewood)
