Victory over the winners of the semi-final between Germany and Nigeria will see Brazil take gold.
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(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo). fans of Brazil cheer during a semi-final match of the men’s Olympic football tournament between Brazil and Honduras at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday Aug. 17, 2016. The 22-year-old Marquinhos plays for Paris Saint-Germain in France, where he is often a starter.
Brazil defeated Honduras 6-0 earlier in the day at the Maracana to put the hosts in the final.
He added a penalty in second-half stoppage time, while new Manchester City signing Gabriel Jesus also bagged a brace during the rout. “We will give our best to win the gold”. “Without him playing the way he is playing, I don’t think this team would have been in the final”.
He also excelled in the first two games of the tournament, when the attack failed to score and Brazil was held to scoreless draws against South African and Iraq. But a 4-0 victory got things rolling, and a 2-0 win over Colombia quelled the naysayers.
After the game, Brazil coach Rogerio Micale, was ecstatic about his team’s dominant performance, particularly from the team captain. “He has a gift for playing football”.
“We didn’t play well”.
His coach thinks Neymar is a disrupting force for other teams. “Since the start there’s been a very good mentality in this team”.
But now Brazil will get a chance for a redemption of sorts – the Olympic gold medal game, again on home soil.
The one-sided nature of the 2014 contest was a major surprise but Wednesday’s last four clashes, which featured largely players under the age of 23, went widely as expected, meaning the two footballing superpowers will meet in an Olympic final for the first time.
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That six-goal mauling left a huge scar on Brazil’s footballing psyche and as the chants showed, fans in the host nation are desperate to get revenge if not on the full German side, then at least on a German side. “7-1 was one time in a career, we will not win 7-1 against Brazil”. That win was the largest ever global loss for a Brazilian national team and could hardly have come at a worse time as Brazilian football was plunged into despair, self doubt and recrimination. “And when you have a star like Neymar, you have to be grateful, because he is the type of player that pushes Brazil to a higher level”.
