Brazil’s five-time winners cruised to a 4-1 victory against South Korea in their World Cup round of 16 encounter in Qatar as Neymar made his injury comeback.
The most expensive player in the world was questionable for the match after suffering an ankle injury in his team’s opening game against Serbia, but he was a key component of the Selecao’s spectacular start.
Raphinha did well on the right wing before finding Lucas Paqueta, who then passed it back to Raphinha so he could shoot across the box.
Neymar and Richarlison both mishandled the ball, but Vinicius Jr. calmly handled it and calmly scored to give Brazil the lead after just seven seconds.
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After Richarlison was fouled six minutes later, Player of the Match Neymar scored by converting the ensuing penalty.
After fellow legends Pele (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970) and Ronaldo, he became just the third Brazilian to score in at least three World Cups as a result. He is currently just one goal behind Pele on position 76 in Brazil’s all-time scoring list (1998, 2002, 2006).
Richarlison, the number nine striker for Brazil and a Spurs player, stunned spectators on minute 29 by balancing the ball three times with his head before involving defenders Marquinhos and Thiago Silva in a deft team move that he ended with his second goal of the competition.
It was the earliest Brazil had ever gone 3-0 up in a single World Cup game with less than 30 minutes remaining in the game.
On a few occasions, Richarlison came out as arrogant when he could have easily defended teammates like Vinicius Jr. and Neymar.
Vinicius Jr. assisted Lucas Paqueta, a former Flamengo teammate, with a magnificent floated cross, and the West Ham midfielder scored Brazil’s fourth goal.
Every time a successful strike had been made, there had been a dance, and even the typically reserved head coach Tite had joined in. When funk enthusiast Paqueta opened his Qatar 2022 account, it was the same.
Brazil could have scored seven or eight goals in the first half, according to the majority of spectators and analysts.
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In their first three games, they scored three goals from 51 shots, and in the first half they scored four goals from seven opportunities.
Paik Seung-ho scored in a less exciting second half as Brazil made a series of substitutes to rest their starters and give other team members playing time.
All 26 of Brazil’s competitors, including three goalkeepers, have now played; with around 10 minutes remaining, third-choice Weverton replaced Alisson.
With this, they made history by being the first team to ever deploy as many as 26 players in a single World Cup.
At the conclusion of the game, the Brazilian players stood arm in arm and raised a huge banner bearing Pele’s name and image in honour of the three-time World Cup champion, who was apparently not feeling well and was being treated at the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo.
But before Tite’s players join the illustrious Santos forward in making history, there is still some work to be done.
They take against Croatia on Friday to advance to a semifinal matchup with the winners of Argentina vs. Netherlands.
