Neymar maintained his blistering form Tuesday night as he netted a second-half winner to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over Colombia and fire them up the South American qualifying group for Russia 2018.
The Selecao, playing their second game under new manager Tite, got off to a perfect start when Miranda rose after just 80 seconds to head home a corner for his first goal in 33 appearances in the Yellow jersey.
With Neymar pulling the strings, the hosts dominated the first half but struggled to carve out clear cut chances and they paid the price in 35 minutes when Colombia equalised against the run of play.
A devilish free-kick from playmaker James Rodriguez caused Brazil centre-back Marquinhos to head the ball into his own net.
However, the night belonged to Neymar and in the 73rd minute, he collected a pass just inside the box before angling a drive into the far corner to beat Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina.
It was his 48th goal in 72 international games as the Barcelona attacker levels with legend Zico on Brazil’s all-time goal-scoring list.
The result lifts Brazil to 15 points, level with Argentina, who could only draw 2-2 against bottom-placed team Venezuela with talisman Lionel Messi out injured.
Colombia sit two points behind them in fourth place while Uruguay, who beat Paraguay 4-0 earlier, top the table with 16 points.
Copa America champions Chile could only draw 0-0 with Bolivia and sit in seventh place in the 10-team table.
0 comments:
Post a Comment