Internet Desk: Neymar & Co. pounced on Honduras in record time and rolled to a 6-0 victory in the Olympics semifinals on Wednesday at a sold-out Estadio Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro and will face-off against Germany who defeated Nigeria 2-0 in another semi-final.
According to experts, Brazil will be eyeing a revenge on Germany over the 7-1 rout they suffered in 2014 FIFA WC Semi-finals on 8 July. It is still considered a historic football match at the Estádio Mineirão in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Neymar will be present this time round but he missed the Germany semi-final two years ago. He left the field in tears on a stretcher with two broken vertebrae to bring his home World Cup to a cruel end when Brazil dumped a James Rodriguez-inspired Colombia out of a bruising quarter-final that included 54 fouls.
Today, Neymar opened the scoring just 15 seconds in–the fastest goal in Olympic history–and tallied a penalty in the dying moments of the second half, while also adding two assists. Gabriel Jesus scored twice in the first half and Marquinhos and Luan added to the rout.
Captain Neymar made a statement for the Seleção from the start, pressuring center back Johnny Palacios off the opening kick. He won the ball, had goalkeeper Luis Lopez come sliding out to try and clear it, only to have it hit off Neymar and trickle into the goal.
Neymar was taken out by the slide and landed on his arm, which appeared to knock the wind out of him. Neymar fell to the ground in pain, attempted to get up and stay on, collapsed back to the ground and was eventually stretchered to the sideline.
Soon after, he jogged back onto the field, holding the left side of his chest, but he continued on, much to the delight of the capacity crowd in Rio de Janeiro.
The Manchester City signing made it 3-0 in the 35th after Neymar split the defense with a perfect through ball. Gabriel Jesus finished with aplomb for his second, putting Brazil in prime position to advance.
It became 4-0 five minutes into the second half, as PSG center back Marquinhos was given enough time, even after overrunning a ball from Neymar, to recover and fire home from close range.
Luan extended it to 5-0 with his second goal in as many games, finishing off a beautiful attacking sequence by tapping home an unselfish pass from Felipe Anderson at the far post.
Neymar capped it in second-half stoppage time after Palacios fouled Luan to gift Brazil a penalty. The Barcelona star confidently finished low and to the left, completing the 6-0 result.
Brazil and goalkeeper Weverton finished off the shutout, a fifth consecutive one at the Olympics. The hosts will enter the final not having conceded in 450 minutes of play this month.