The ‘nice game’ has not died. Now he walks through Doha hand in hand with the recovered Neymar and his friends from Brazil, who advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals by crushing South Korea (4-1) on Monday.
The ’10’ came back on top after a sprained right ankle left him out of the tournament for eleven days. And he did it to send a message: the ‘Seleção’ wants the six-time championship to honor King Pelé, who has been hospitalized since Tuesday in Sao Paulo.
The Brazilians dispelled the doubts that arose after their loss against Cameroon (1-0) at the close of Group G by sentencing the game in the first half.
Vinicius Jr (7), ‘Ney’ (13, from a penalty), Richarlison (29) and Lucas Paquetá (36) led the party at stadium 974 against the misplaced Korea of ​​Son Heung-min, who discounted through Paik Seungho (76).
The ‘scratch’ will fight on Friday for the pass to the semifinals against Croatia (15H00 GMT), who earlier beat Japan on penalties (1-1, 3-1 in the shootout).
Intact!
The return of Neymar, low after the victorious debut against Serbia (2-0), was a bottle of oxygen for the Brazilian attack, which said goodbye to the first phase with just three goals, its worst performance for a group stage since Argentina-1978, when he scored two.
The difference from ‘Ney’ from eleven days ago with whom he entered 974 was just his hair dyed gold, the color of the Cup. Because from very early on he misplaced the Korean defense at will.
So worried was the rearguard of Paulo Bento’s team with him that he neglected Vinicius Jr in the play that broke the zero.
As in the pasture, which in Brazil is called "várzea"Raphinha dodged two Koreans, tried to associate with Paquetá but an opponent got in the way, with such bad luck that he returned the ball to the Barcelona winger inside the area.
The ’11’, then, made a death pass, which this time covered the 18 until finding Vini free, who placed it at the far post of Kim Seung-gyu to score his first goal in a World Cup.
He hadn’t finished celebrating the ‘Canarinha’, or spreading a flag wishing Pelé a speedy recovery, when Jung Woo-young hit Richarlison inside the box.
The ‘crooked’, who accompanied en masse, asked Neymar to kick him and he complied with the order with a smooth execution to the goalkeeper’s left post. Now, he is one goal away from equaling ‘O rei’ (77 goals) as Brazil’s top scorer.
goal dance
Korea tried to get out of intensive care by making Alisson fly in a distant shot by Hwang Hee-chan (17), one of Bento’s variants compared to the eleven that defeated Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal 2-1 at the close of Group H.
The five-time champions took the shot as an affront, and returned the bell sending a warning message to the world: the ‘beautiful game’ returned.
Richarlison, who scored from Chile against the Serbs, protected Hwang In-beom’s ball with three consecutive headers, then held it with his forehead before passing it to Marquinhos.
The center-back shared it with Thiago Silva, who assisted ‘Pombo’ with finesse and he defined with his left foot to make it 3-0.
Death pass, penalty and ‘jogo bonito’. Was something missing? Yes, Brazil showed that in its restaurant it also serves counterattacks.
‘Ney’ received a recovered ball that opened for Vini on the left. The winger launched a cross that seemed very high, but fell right into Paquetá’s area of ​​influence, a left-footed player who shot from the right to sink the Korean dream of qualifying for the quarterfinals for the second time.
In an act of self-love, the Asians, who had already been humiliated by Brazil 5-1 in a friendly in Seoul in June, tried to reduce their advantages in the second half by demanding as much as possible from Alisson on three occasions from Son (46), Hwang (68) and Cho Gue-sung(78).
The consolation prize came in an unassailable left footed shot from Paik.
With the game sentenced from the first half, Tite dedicated himself to managing the fatigue of his players, withdrawing Neymar (80) and bringing on the third goalkeeper, Weverton. Total, the world of soccer already received the message from him.