Russian Federation 2018: Neymar led Brazil thrash Austria in final warm up match

“I do not even know the limit of Neymar”, Tite told reporters afterwards. But boy, did it work well.

Though their fall from grace hasn’t been pretty, they’ve managed to stop the decline and slowly rebuild themselves into a top side once more.

After playing Switzerland in Rostov-on-Don on June 17, it faces Costa Rica in St. Petersburg five days later, before wrapping up its Group E campaign against Serbia on June 27 in Moscow. Thus, it was a joy for fans to see their team can breach crowded, bunkered-in defences.

Germany are the hosts and Joachim Low is so confident in his squad that he made a decision to leave Leroy Sane out.

And Brazil, as a team, looks ready as well.

Neymar was a good sport because he probably had that one coming.

Before Thursday’s kickoff, Federation Internationale de Football Association will focus on choosing the host of the 2026 World Cup between a joint bid featuring the United States, Canada and Mexico and underdogs Morocco.

As the atmosphere built before Thursday’s curtain raiser between the hosts and Saudi Arabia, the French and Argentine players were put through their paces while Brazil took the day off. Brazil, if not the favorite, is one of the two or three favorites to lift the World Cup trophy on July 15. At the time, Thiago was injury prone and seemingly burnt-out while Marquinhos was “flying”. Brazil is in red-hot form after their wins over Germany and Croatia.

Make no mistake: Dani Alves will be missed by the Selecao, especially for his leadership and experience. Shortly after, the team flew to Sochi, its base for the tournament, as those back in their homeland reacted to a win which impressed and boosted expectations of winning an unprecedented sixth world title.

Soon after Neymer’s goal, which was set up by Chelsea’ Willian, Philippe Courinho scored another cracker, after a slick one-two with former Liverpool team-mate Roberto Firmino.