Looked far from his best.
Heading into the World Cup, there were concerns over two high-profile players: Mohamed Salah and Neymar.
The Egyptian’s injury in the Champions League final for Liverpool plunged his tournament into doubt. He was ultimately included in his country’s squad but was not fit enough to feature in the 1-0 defeat to Uruguay on Friday.
Brazil took a different approach with Neymar. The forward missed most of the second half of his first season with Paris Saint-Germain after fracturing his metatarsal in February.
The world’s most expensive forward decided to take a gamble by undergoing surgery to help him regain his fitness in time for Russia. He returned for Brazil in their 2-0 friendly win over Croatia at the start of the month, allaying fears over his health by scoring a wonderful goal.
Against Switzerland, however, the 26-year-old looked well off the pace. Philippe Coutinho lit up the match with a sensational opener but his illustrious teammate struggled against the physicality of the Swiss.
Ridiculous technique https://t.co/6DDAcMHuEe #WorldCup2018 #Coutinho
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 17, 2018
Neymar, impossible to miss with his Pot Noodle haircut, failed to deliver as Brazil dropped two points in the Group E clash.
The former Barcelona forward succeeded with only five of his ten dribbles. He was also dispossessed seven times but was fouled ten times, an illustration of the very deliberate attention Switzerland paid him.
Crucially, with just a few minutes remaining, Neymar misjudged his header, passing up a presentable chance to snatch a dramatic late win for the Seleção. He then chose not to try and emulate Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick heroics, crossing into the box instead of trying to test Yann Sommer.
Brazil will argue, perhaps rightly so, that Neymar needs match minutes to build up his fitness, but head coach Tite can only hope he recaptures his finest form for the two remaining group games. Brazil can breathe a country-wide sigh of relief tonight though after the player came through Switzerland’s muscular approach relatively unscathed.
On another night, he may have been leaving the pitch in agony.
Can someone pull Neymar out of Lichsteiners pocket so he can get into the game
— max (@_maxargueta) June 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/paulblanche21/status/1008429550563463168
https://twitter.com/mar2far/status/1008434401162735616
Too many passages where Neymar slows them down and takes too much out of the ball, too. Fair to question whether that's influenced by how he's indulged at PSG. He was much slicker and incisive with Barca.
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) June 17, 2018
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