Neymar’s Performance against Costa Rica to Decide Brazil’s Destiny

From the start of the 2018 World Cup, the excitement over Brazil claiming the trophy is strong no doubt, but its performances in the past matches reflect their uncertain future, as the Brazilians have failed to secure three points in their first match against Switzerland. Now the time is back to reclaim the form to fulfill their dream to achieve the World Cup, while it plays with Costa Rica today. Neymar will try to reclaim Brazil's World Cup campaign after 16 years.

Despite being five time champions, Neymar had to struggle a lot in the last match against Switzerland resulting in Brazil's disappointing 1-1 draw, Neymar was also fouled 10 times during the match, which is said to be the most for any player in a single World Cup game in the past 20 years. It is important here to mention that two days back, the world's most expensive player raised uncertainty over his play, when he walked away in an awkward manner during a training session in full public view. Though he came back again to practice after 48 hours ahead of the match, raising hopes for the Brazilian supporters.

From the beginning of the World Cup, there were doubts over his fitness, as he has just recovered from the broken bone in his right foot, which ended his ongoing season with Paris Saint Germain in February this year. The match with Switzerland was therefore his first competitive match after his recovery from the injury.

It is therefore, time and again questions were raised whether he is lacking serious match practice, as in the last match his performance to unlock the organized Switzerland defence is closely watched. On the other hand, Brazil’s Philippe Coutinho kept Brazil's campaign for the trophy alive by his wonderful long range strike to open the scoring for the team.

But such is the fellow feeling that Coutinho is confident and says Neymar remains the main figure in Brazilian team for the pursuit of World Cup Trophy. When he says, “Neymar is one of the best players in the world. Of course, having him in our side is a big plus for us. He is so important. He is always creating the play, creating space.”

The team also made some changes, few days back Brazil has named Thiago Silva as the captain for its match against Costa Rica, following the policy of rotating the team leadership.

In the last match against Switzerland, the supporter of Brazil were unhappy with the treatment Neymar had to face in the field and also when Video Assistant Referee (VAR) failed to identify the strike by Steven Zuber that came after a push on Miranda. Brazilian Federation has registered a complaint to FIFA. But all of this won’t matter at all if Neymar doesn’t perform well today against Costa Rica.

Costa Rica too is not an easy team, four years ago Costa Rica shocked everyone with their performance against England, Uruguay and Italy to reach the quarterfinals in the last world cup. So, it’s going to be tough match no doubt giving delight to all football lovers.