Reuters
Rio de Janeiro, August 21: He shed tears on both occasions. When he cried July 8, 2014, those were tears of humiliation, of shame, of pain after Brazil had been hammered 1-7 by Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup.
But then those same tears of Neymar changed to that of joy, of ecstacy, of relief after Brazil beat Germany 5-4 in the shootout to win the Olympic soccer gold. Revenge exacted and Olympic jinx broken. In Brazil’s football history it was that one piece missing in the jigsaw puzzle. It got completed Saturday when the Neymar-led side became the Olympic champions.
Regulation and extra-time had failed to break the 1-1 deadlock. Neymar had given the hosts the lead midway through the first session with a wonderfully taken free-kick, but the Germans hit back on the hour mark through skipper Maximilian Meyer.
There were no more goals so the match went to penalties with Nils Petersen missing Germany’s fifth spot-kick leaving Neymar, who appeared to injure himself late in the game, to limp up and coolly score from the spot to send the capacity crowd wild.
Brazil had lost the Olympic final three times –in 1984, 1988 and 2012 – but they finally got the gold they craved on a dramatic night at the Maracana Stadium here in which they outplayed the Germans but were saved three times by the woodwork.
“Yesterday we were criticised,” the 24-year-old Barcelona forward said in reference to Brazil’s poor start to the Olympic tournament in which the home side drew 0-0 with South Africa and Iraq. “We have replied with good football.”
Brazil coach Rogerio Micale added: “We had players who were extremely dedicated, professional and with great technical skill. I’ll leave here with the sensation of having done my duty.”
With a passionate crowd behind them, Brazil took the game to their opponents and dominated possession and territory.
However, they struggled to make chances and it was the Germans who almost opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Julian Brandt smacked the bar with a lovely curling shot from outside the box.
Brazil kept pushing forward and just before the half hour mark they got the goal that their play deserved. Neymar was brought down almost 25 metres from goal and, although the angle was tight, he curled a spectacular strike into the net off the underside of Timo Horn’s bar.
Brazil still looked the hungrier side but it was Germany who got the next goal with an hour gone. Jeremy Toljan sent in a low cross from the right and Meyer swept home a lovely finish from about 10 metres.
Regulation and extra-time
Brazil 1 (Neymar) Germany 1 (Maximilian Meyer)
Shootout at Rio
Germany Brazil
Matthias Ginter Renato Augusto
Serge Gnabry Marquinhos
Julian Brandt Rafinha
Niklas Suele Luan
Nils Petersen (miss) Neymar