Cameroon vs Brazil: Neymar ready to do 'whatever it takes' to keep Brazil dream alive and win home World Cup after dismantling eliminated Cameroon
Neymar dazzled in Brasilia to see the host#s progress from Group A as winners and set-up a second round tie against fellow South Americans Chile
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Two goals from Neymar helped thrust Brazil into a last-16 World Cup clash with Chile and showed why many believe the 22-year-old can even topple Pele as his country's top scorer.
Neymar already has 35 goals in 52 caps to his name, and only Pele and Zico have a better goals-per-game average for Brazil but both those greats' totals of 77 and 66 respectively look an achieveable target for Barcelona's latest superstar.
His two goals put Brazil on their way and though Joel Matip's first-time finish initially put Cameroon level, Fred and substitute Fernandinho put a gloss on the final 4-1 scoreline.
Afterwards, Neymar played down the pressure on his shoulders saying: "There is no pressure. I've always said there is no pressure when you are making a dream come true and doing something you have sought after since you were a kid.
"I'm now playing in matches that I always dreamed about.
"I just want to help my fellow players not only by scoring goals but doing whatever it takes on the pitch to help us win.
"We are on the right track and the whole team is getting better and getting close to our target."
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted that he would have preferred to face a European team rather than Chile.
He said: "If I could choose I would have picked someone else as Chile are a good South American team, they have quality, they are organised they have the will to succeed.
"I will look at things when all the adrenaline has left our bodies, sometimes when we look at the match again in the cold light of day we see it in a different way."
Scolari also praised Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho for his display after he came off the bench at half-time to replace Paulinho and hinted he could be in the starting line-up for the Chile game.
He added: "I think Fernandinho coming in was critical and we created a number of good chances in attack. Nature doesn't make leaps, things evolve step by step and this is what we are doing."
Cameroon's German coach Volker Finke said the team were "suffering" from their disappointing World Cup.
He said: "It's terrible and we are suffer this but we have gained experience and what we need to do is focus and concentrate for the next challenge.
"The first half wasn't so bad but it's true we need to focus for the whole 90 minutes.
"We need to find the reasons for this - three times we had control of the ball and then lost possession which led to goals."
PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments