neymar scored a fantastic first and set up a late second for jo as brazil beat mexico 2-0 to move on to the verge of a semi-final spot.
el tri battled well, and produced a few good chances of their own, but it was a comfortable victory for luiz felipe scolari's men.
ıt was the poster-boy of this tournament who once again opened the scoring for a seleção. dani alves went down the brazil right and crossed towards fred. the ball was half-cleared by the mexican defence, and neymar watched the ball on to his left foot before unleashing a volley which left jose corona no chance.
as brazil’s no10 wheeled off in celebration, and was quickly joined by his team-mates, the noise inside the estadio castelao was deafening.
the stage seemed set for brazil to dominate another game. neymar magnificently controlled a cross-field hulk pass and shimmied on to his left foot. his drive towards goal just rose a little too quickly and the scrambling corona was not called into action.
mexico came back into the game and actually ended the first half with more of the ball, but they were unable to break down the brazil defence.
brazil had the ball in the net again at the beginning of the second half, with thiago silva poking in after a free-kick was whipped into the box, but the officials ruled the effort out for offside.
brazil did nevertheless get their second in injury time, with neymar squaring the ball for jo to put the result beyond doubt.
luiz felipe scolari’s men will be watching ıtaly’s clash with japan safe in the knowledge that a win for gli azzurri would secure their and a seleção’s passage to the semi-finals.
