World Cup 2018: Brazil exit saddest moment of my career, says Neymar - Sports news

Home Top Ad

Post Top Ad

Sunday, July 8, 2018

World Cup 2018: Brazil exit saddest moment of my career, says Neymar

World Cup 2018: Brazil exit saddest moment of my career, says Neymar

Neymar (Reuters Photo)
FIFA World Cup 2018: Neymar failed to score as Brazil lost to Belgium and were knocked out of the tournament. (Reuters Photo)
Brazil's star striker Neymar said his country's ouster from the FIFA World Cup 2018 was the "saddest moment" of his career.
The 5-time champions Brazil suffered a 2-1 defeat against Belgium in the quarter-finals in Kazan to get knocked out of the World Cup.
Neymar said he will find it hard to return to club football.
The Paris St Germain player came to Russia as one of the potential leading lights but he did not live up to his own high standards and left saying the quarter-final defeat was the low point of his footballing life.
"I can tell you this is the saddest moment of my career, the pain is huge because we know that we could have gone far, we knew that we had what it takes to go further, to make history... but it wasn't to be this time," Neymar said on Instagram.
"It is hard to find the strength to want to return to play football again but I am sure that God will give me strength to face whatever is in front of me," he added.
"Very happy to be part of this team, I am proud of everyone, they interrupted our dream but they did not remove it from our head nor from our hearts."
Brazil were knocked out in an enthralling end-to-end encounter in Kazan on Friday that ended their chances of winning the World Cup for a record sixth time.
Neymar will arrive back in Brazil on Sunday morning for a holiday before returning to Paris for the French league season.
A Fernandinho own goal and a brilliant Kevin De Bruyne strike earned Belgium a date with neighbours France in St Petersburg on Tuesday, their second trip to the last four at a World Cup after 1986.
Brazil departed at the last-eight stage for the third time in the last four World Cups despite the best efforts of talismanic forward Neymar, who followed Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo out of the tournament.
Brazil left everything on the pitch as they chased an equaliser in the last 14 minutes of the match in the wake of substitute Renato Augusto's fine headed goal.
Roared on by the vast majority of the crowd at the Kazan Arena, the Brazilians poured forward to try and keep their campaign alive but Roberto Firmino, Augusto and Coutinho could not convert gilt-edged opportunities to level the scores.
Neymar ran at the Belgium defence until the end but had a second penalty appeal waved away by Serbian referee Milorad Mazic and a final shot tipped over the bar by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois as the last few seconds ticked away.
It is Belgium's latest "golden generation", therefore, who will take their place in a World Cup semi-final lineup guaranteed to be all-European and for the first time not featuring one of Brazil, Argentina or Germany.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Post Bottom Ad

Pages