Brazil continued their pursuit of a record-extending sixth World Cup title with a clinical 4-1 win over South Korea in the Round of 16 on Monday. Vinicius Junior opened the scoring inside seven minutes before Neymar added another from the penalty spot to move to 76 goals for his country, leaving him just one away from equalling Pele’s all-time record tally. Richarlison tripled the lead for Brazil while Lucas Paqueta added another before half-time to leave South Korea shellshocked.
Notably, Neymar returned to Brazil after missing two matches due to a foot injury. The world’s most expensive player had sat out his team’s last two matches with a sprained ankle suffered in their first game in Qatar, a 2-0 win over Serbia. But he came back for this last-16 tie as Tite’s team clicked into gear and delivered an ominous message to their rivals, at least before easing off in the second half.
With the win, Brazil has set up Friday’s quarter-final clash with 2018 runners-up Croatia.
The five-time World Cup winners had not scored four goals in a knockout game at the tournament since 1998.
Here they played at times with the joy associated with the Brazilian national team, the players coming together to celebrate each goal by showing off their dance moves and their coach even joining in.
