Neymar’s return from injury for Brazil was better than expected, coach Tite said after their World Cup elimination. The Brazil star was unable to stop his team from a quarter-final exit as they suffered a 2-1 loss to Belgium in Kazan on Friday. Neymar scored two goals and provided an assist in five games, having made his return from a broken foot in early June.
He appeared to be rounding into form in time for the business end of the tournament, having delivered a goal to cap a man of the match performance in Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Mexico in the round of 16.
“Neymar, we’ve seen there was a clear evolution coming to his top performance,” he told a news conference. Before the match when he was selected man of the match [against Mexico] we got together and I said, ‘Neymar, you are 100 per cent’. Because you can realise when the mind is thinking and the body is responding. The dribbling, the feinting, the speed. He came back better than I imagined. Physically he’s also very well gifted, he’s very fast. In terms of high-intensity actions, no-one in the World Cup comes close.”