Samara, Russia: Brazil reached the World Cup quarterfinals after Neymar scored and assisted in a 2-0 win over a Mexico side that saw their “fifth game” curse continue.
Neymar opened the scoring for Brazil with a close-range tap-in on 50 minutes and Roberto Firmino made the game safe two minutes from time.
It was another painful exit for Mexico, who have failed to play a fifth game at the World Cup since hosting in 1986. After being disqualified from qualifying in 1990, Mexico have suffered seven successive defeats in the round of 16 stage since 1994.
Brazil will now face the winners of Belgium and Japan in the quarterfinals, though Casemiro will be suspended after picking up a yellow card in the second half.
The five-time winners also surpassed Germany’s World Cup record of 226 World Cup goals, moving on to 228 after Neymar and Firmino’s strikes.
Mexico, unfazed by their poor record in the last-16, began brightly and Brazil’s full-backs Fagner and Filipe Luis struggled with their pace in attack. Hirving Lozano went close inside the opening two minutes as his shot was blocked after Alisson failed to deal with a cross from the left.
Focused and fearless, Mexico continued to trouble Brazil in the opening stages, with Fagner in particular struggling massively to cope with the threat down his side. Second best for 24 minutes, Brazil and Neymar finally stirred into life in attack with the Paris Saint-Germain forward forcing Guillermo Ochoa into a decent stop before Gabriel Jesus’ shot was blocked.
Jesus then had another opportunity as a nervous Mexico defence failed to clear, but the Manchester City striker found Ochoa equal to his shot.
The goalkeeper could do nothing about Brazil’s opener five minutes after the restart as Willian’s left-footed cross found Neymar, who was cutting into the six-yard box and made no mistake from close range.
Paulinho almost doubled the lead before the hour, but his shot inside the box was kept out by the excellent Ochoa, who then had to tip Willian’s fizzing drive over the bar.
This post was published on July 3, 2018 5:15 pm