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Neymar and Brazil break Olympic curse, win gold in final against Germany

A night of deafening noise and frantic play inside Rio’s iconic arena ended in triumph for the host nation, as a penalty shootout separated the sides after Saturday’s final finished 1-1 following extra time.

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Brazilian goalkeeper Weverton had just dove perfectly to his left to stop Nils Petersen’s attempt after Germany and Brazil scored its first four penalties with textbook precision.

As fate would have it, two of the biggest footballing countries in the world would meet again and challenge each other for another major global prize, as Brazil and Germany faced off in the Olympic football final.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – With Olympic gold finally in hand, the pressure is squarely on Brazil’s senior team now.

The noise ratcheted up to a level not heard at these Olympics but Germany attacked undaunted, with a teasing Meyer free-kick directed onto the top of the crossbar by a Brazilian defender.

Neymar, one of three overage players on Brazil’s side, took a brunt of the criticism.

Neymar, who was quite emotional after this memorable victory, said he did not have words to describe his feeling.

With the fifth and final penalty kick for his team, Brazilian men’s soccer captain Neymar slotted the ball into the upper-right corner of the net to win the gold medal match.

“Today I have become a champion, and I give up the captain’s armband”, the Barcelona forward told SporTV.

And moments later, Neymar came close to restoring Brazil’s lead himself when his long shot flashed inches wide of the far post.

The win was also significant due to the fact that it was played with the memory of Brazil’s 7-1 defeat to Germany very much alive.

Neymar, who has has won the Confederations Cup with Brazil and the Champions League with Barcelona, said: “I do not like to put one title above the other – every competition I contest and win is important”.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a World Cup, European Championship or Olympic Games, this is what you’ve earned from your weeks and months of hard work”. “It was the Olympics but we needed to respond to the Brazilian people and we did that, we won”.

After a rollercoaster Olympics for the hosts, it took just one kick of a ball from Brazil’s poster boy Neymar to make a nation’s dream come true.

The U.S. has won back-to-back world titles since London and, with a team led by former Olympic champion LeShawn Merritt, it is hard to see the US fluffing their lines here.

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At the top of the medals tally, the U.S. added five more gold medals on the day to increase their lead at the top to 16 gold medals, while Great Britain and China are battling it out for the second and third spot with just two gold medals separating them.

After leading Brazil to gold in Rio Neymar announced that he would be resigning the captaincy