Neymar powers Brazil as Spain, France win
Print Edition
NEYMAR’S hat-trick lit up a powerful Brazil performance as the 32 nations taking part in this year’s World Cup tested out their squads on a busy night of friendlies on Wednesday which also brought victories for Spain, Germany and France.
Barcelona forward Neymar was unstoppable for tournament host Brazil as it demolished a poor South Africa side 5-0 at the Soccer City Stadium in Soweto which hosted the 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands.
It was also a good day for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo who scored twice in Portugal’s 5-1 win over Cameroon, making him his country’s all-time leading scorer with 49 goals.
But Neymar’s Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi had an off-color night for Argentina in Romania, vomiting on the field early in a dull 0-0 draw in Bucharest.
Home advantage makes Brazil slight favorites to win a sixth World Cup this year, but a host of usual suspects will travel to the south American country with genuine hopes of gate-crashing the Samba party which starts in 99 days.
World and European champion Spain is chief among them and it underlined its pedigree with a 1-0 victory over Italy in a repeat of the Euro 2012 final.
Pedro scored the game’s only goal in Atletico Madrid’s Calderon Stadium.
Germany, also bidding to become Europe’s first winner of a World Cup in south America, edged past Chile 1-0 and 1998 winner France, which struggled through qualifying, beat the Netherlands 2-0.
Mario Goetze was on target for Germany in Stuttgart but the team was jeered by unhappy fans. “It was a lucky win,” said captain Philipp Lahm. “I can understand the fans, the people paid for their tickets and they wanted to see something.”
Karim Benzema and Blaise Matuidi sealed France’s impressive win over the Dutch in Paris.
Neymar was the day’s outstanding performer, though, scoring once in the first half and twice after the break to take his tally for his country to 30.
Chelsea’s Oscar had opened the scoring and Fernandinho completed the rout.
“I have no doubt that we are ready,” Brazil captain Thiago Silva said on O Globo’s website. “This gives us great morale, great motivation. Now we can rest the mind in these three months remaining.”
Roy Hodgson’s England labored to a 1-0 win over Denmark with Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge scoring late to ensure it did not lose three friendlies in a row at Wembley having been beaten by Germany and Chile in November.
World Cup dark horse Belgium drew 2-2 with African qualifier Ivory Coast while Switzerland and Croatia also shared four goals. Uruguay, which is in a World Cup group with fellow former champion England and Italy, was held 1-1 in Austria.
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