Neymar Jr captains Brazil into Olympic quarter finals
Hosts make up for two 0-0 draws against South Africa and Iraq. They thumped Denmark 4-0 to progress into a quarter final against Colombia.
Neymar Jr captains Brazil into Olympic quarter finals
It has taken a rather good deal longer than most expected. But Brazil’s men are finally up and performing in the Olympic football tournament. They had faced two abject 0-0 draws in their opening two matches. Although, the Selecao found their cutting edge against a crumbling Denmark side on Wednesday night.
And now the Brazilian Olympic team are through to the last eight of the men’s football tournament. Neymar Jr played his better part in the convincing 4-0 defeat of Denmark at the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador.
Two goals from Gabriel Barbosa and one apiece for Luan and Gabriel Jesús did the job. Captain Neymar Jr played the full ninety minutes himself. But for the first time in the competition, Barça’s other representative, Rafinha, watched the whole game sitting on the bench.
Brazil will now face their fellow South Americans Colombia in the quarter finals. The match will take place on Saturday 13 August at 3.00 am CET. The winning side of that game will meet South Korea or Honduras in the semi-finals.
Neymar’s response against Denmark was encouraging and delightful, even if slightly muted. He certainly looked more willing to gel with his teammates. The outcome was that he seemed to benefit from the presence of the fleet-footed Luan. Luan had started in place of Felipe Anderson. There would be no goal though– Neymar last scored for Brazil six games (and 11 months) ago, thus making this his longest dry spell so far for his country. But no sulking and no booing either this time. Encouraging signs, then, for both the star player and team.
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