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After All the Gloom, Brazil Can Fulfil Olympic Dream and Gain World Cup Revenge
- Updated: August 18, 2016
From Neymar’s goal to open the scoring after just 15 seconds, to the late penalty notched by the captain in the dying moments, Brazil played with swagger and verve throughout their comprehensive Olympic semi-final victory over Honduras.
However, they will have to move up a gear against their gold-medal opponents, as the team look to make up for one of the blackest chapters in their history.
The date July 8, 2014, is seared into fans’ minds. It was on that day, at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, that dreams of lifting the World Cup on home soil were crushed in the cruelest way possible.
Missing Neymar through injury after the forward suffered a damaged vertebra in the quarter-final against Colombia, and the suspended Thiago Silva, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men were battered 7-1 by a remorseless Germany.
Five of those goals came within a devastating 20-minute spell in the first half, in which it appeared the entire Brazilian defence had given up on the game as they made mistake after elementary mistake.
Two goals from Toni Kroos, two more from Andre Schurrle, Thomas Muller’s opener and one each for Miroslav Klose and Sami Khedira sealed Brazil’s fate. Now once again the two football giants will cross paths on the hunt for glory—but this time, there is no way Neymar will be missing out on the action.
The inspirational forward, however, must have feared the worst just seconds into Wednesday’s 6-0 thrashing of Honduras. In the first passage of the game, he broke free down the middle and looped the ball over Luis Lopez to open the scoring. With the clock showing 15 seconds, it was the fastest goal in Olympic history.
It had come at a price, though. The Barcelona forward clashed with Lopez as he netted and stayed down for a good while, as an entire nation once more fretted over his fitness. Eventually he clambered gingerly to his feet and eased himself back into the game.
It was about the closest Brazil came to a scare during an overwhelmingly one-sided last-four match that guaranteed the Selecao will close the Rio de Janieiro Games with at least a silver medal.
Honduras were predictably physical, falling just short of their astronomic fouls tally against South Korea with 22 infractions over the 90 minutes at the Maracana.
If the Central Americans could not add to that number, it was because they simply couldn’t get close enough to Neymar and Co. Gabriel Jesus, well and truly over his scoring drought of the opening games, added two in a nine-minute purple patch toward the end of the first half, as the hosts went into the break cruising at …
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