However, Micale highlighted the seven-year age gap between the two for Marta’s greater maturity, and insisted Neymar will eventually depose Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to become the world’s best player.
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Last Saturday, as Brazil beat Sweden 5-1, the Rio crowd chanted that Marta was better than Neymar.
But Micale said Brazil need to reflect on the state of the national game rather debating whether to strip Neymar of the captaincy.
“We are not going to focus on Iraq on what they can and cannot do; we are going to play to our strengths”. This week, many photos surfaced on social media with fans replacing Neymar’s name by Marta’s on Brazil’s jerseys.
Rogerio stressed Neymar’s relative youthfulness and lack of experience, despite the fact the 24-year-old has scoring 46 goals in 70 appearances for his country.
Zico said that after the Selecao’s early Copa America Centenario group exit and the 2014 World Cup semifinal humiliation by Germany on home soil, he feared something similar was about to happen now at the Olympics.
Manchester City’s new £27 million (RM141.26 million) signing Gabriel Jesus has also endured a nightmare tournament, missing gilt-edged chances in both games and insists he doesn’t care how Brazil go through as long as they finally find the net.
“Neymar is just 24 and hasn’t fully matured”, asserted Micale.
“He remains confident, but he is not happy with what has been happening, ” Augusto said. “We only need a simple victory to reach the next round and remain alive in the fight for a medal, ” he added. “We need to work hard because we depend only on ourselves for qualification”, Micale concluded. “He knows of his importance to this group”. Brazil has played 180 minutes against South Africa and Iraq and been unable to score a single goal.
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Brazil have two points and are joint second in Group A with Iraq, who also drew their first two games. If there is a victor in the South Africa-Iraq game, Brazil would be dumped out of the competition with just a point.
