Brazil and Neymar: In sync and on song heading for World Cup

Update: Neymar returned to training with Brazil ahead of the team’s Round of 16 match against South Korea.

As a final warm-up game before the World Cup, Brazil’s encounter with Tunisia overheated in Paris. Rather than a friendly, the hostility reverberated around the Auteuil.

The Parc des Princes was supposed to embrace Neymar and his Paris Saint-Germain team-mates past and present, Brazil captain Marquinhos and Thiago Silva. “The Parc awaits its Prince,” Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe claimed. Neymar has looked like Ballon d’Or material this season with 11 goals and 10 assists in 12 appearances for club and country. He has been worth the price on the ticket. But the Parc did not feel like home on Tuesday night.

When the Brazil goalkeepers came out to warm up with 1994 World Cup winner Taffarel, the boos hit harder than the shots they faced. Whistles greeted their national anthem and Tite shook his head. There are a million Tunisians in France and it seemed like all of them had got a seat for this one. The O Globo journalist Diogo Dontas compared the atmosphere with a Copa Libertadores game.

Tite made two changes to the team that beat Ghana 3-0 in Le Havre on Friday — Juventus right-back Danilo traded places with Eder Militao and Fred reprised his role in midfield with Manchester United team-mate Casemiro, Vinicius Junior dropped to the bench with Lucas Paqueta moving wide left — but the approach was the same. When Brazil consolidated possession, Fred pushed up just as Paqueta did against Ghana, with Danilo coming into central midfield just as Militao did. The double pivot then had five players in front to choose from: Paqueta, Neymar, Richarlison, Fred and Raphinha.

Brazil scored four first-half goals. A walk in the Parc, you might say, and Raphinha’s opener was the Selecao at their best; a lofted Casemiro pass, Aymen Dahmen, the Tunisia goalkeeper, coming to the net like a foot volley player on Ipanema beach, Raphinha looping a header over him.

Tunisia, unbeaten in seven games, then equalised from a set piece and the Parc erupted. Red flares burned bright and the Tunisian fans were still on their feet, the smoke yet to clear, when all of sudden they were behind again. Raphinha slipped Richarlison through and his seventh goal for Brazil in 2022 followed. Twenty years on from Ronaldo’s heroics in Yokohama, Brazil has another R9.

Before kick-off, Brazil’s players got together for a team photo behind a banner with an anti-racism message. “Without our black players, we wouldn’t have stars (commemorating World Cup wins) on our shirts.” Recently the team has come out in support of Vinicius Junior, condemning the racist abuse he has been suffering in Spain. At the Parc, they rallied around Richarlison.

When celebrating his latest goal for the Selecao, a banana was thrown from the stands. “I didn’t see it at the time,” Richarlison said in the mixed zone. “Thank God I didn’t, because in the heat of the moment who knows what would have happened.”

Richarlison celebrates his goal against Tunisia – he later admitted he was glad he did not see the banana that was thrown (Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP)

The game restarted as normal but once the shock, horror and confusion subsided, Neymar and Casemiro sought out the referee.

A Tunisia corner kick brought another break in play and the game was halted until a message was read out over the tannoy. In the coming days, those words need to be followed by action and the launch of an investigation.

“We know how difficult it is to identify the supporters who did this, but we have to identify them,” the former Middlesbrough playmaker Juninho Paulista said in his role as team director.

“The CBF (Brazil’s football federation) released a statement about this and I came here to reiterate this position. I strongly condemn all racist conduct.”

Tite’s anger was palpable. “The authorities have to intervene,” he demanded.

Sat beside him, his assistant, the former centre-back Cesar Sampaio added: “The offenders must be punished. It’s gone too far.”

The febrile atmosphere and fractiousness on the pitch threatened to destabilise Brazil. But the players wouldn’t let it.

When a penalty was awarded against Aissa Laidouni for bringing down Casemiro, the crowd raged at the injustice of a just decision. Neymar stood over the ball, centred himself amid the din and showed with each stutter step that he was the one in control. Not Tunisia. Not Dahmen. Brazil would not be intimidated.

It was his 75th goal for his country. Two short of Pele’s record, two months out from Qatar. Neymar should match or surpass it at the World Cup.

As long, that is, as he avoids serious harm between now and November.

Minutes after Raphinha rifled a shot in off the post to make it 4-1, Tunisia’s centre-back Dylan Bronn stepped across Neymar and kicked him on the knee. A scuffle broke out and once the referee restored order, Bronn received a straight red.

Tite was waiting for him as he traipsed towards the tunnel. “It’s a move to take Neymar out of the World Cup,” he complained.

The half-time interval and scoreline took the sting out of the game. After withdrawing Richarlison to take another look at Atletico Madrid striker Matheus Cunha against Ghana, Tite this time swapped in Pedro of Flamengo.

It was a night to remember for him. Prolific in the Copa Libertadores, scoring 12 goals in 12 games in Flamengo’s run to the final, Pedro, unlike Cunha in Le Havre, took his chance, hitting a loose ball into the ground and past Dahmen to open his account for Brazil. “I hope it’s the first of many,” he said. It remains to be seen if Pedro will be in Turin for Brazil’s last pre-World Cup training camp in November, but for now, the song ‘Ai, Pedro’ by L7NNON and MC Biel is going viral again.

Amid all the noise made by the Tunisians, the signal in Paris is that Brazil are in sync and on song.

“The World Cup started today,” Neymar joked. “The Tunisians got a bit carried away because of the crowd. It was a big party. They overdid it a bit. But our team showed a good mentality, we played our game and managed to win.”

Now for Qatar.

Additional Reading:

Tite steps down as Brazil manager following Croatia World Cup defeat

(Top photo: Julian Setterfield/Getty Images)