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Copa America: Neymar gives Brazil an optimal start

2021-06-16T11:02:00.039Z


Brazil's national soccer team questioned the Copa America in their own country. But now the ball is rolling, although several teams are struggling with corona cases.


Enlarge image

Neymar (3rd from left) with his teammates during the game against Venezuela

Photo: Eraldo Peres / dpa

Hosts and defending champions Brazil have made a successful start to the Copa America.

The team won the opening game of the South American Championship against Venezuela in Brasília 3-0 (1-0).

Superstar Neymar shone with a goal and two assists.

After Neymar's corner kick, Marquinhos headed for the lead (24th).

In the second half, Neymar converted a penalty kick (64th) to make it 2-0 before he put the third Brazilian goal on Gabriel Barbosa (89th).

Neymar has 113 goals in 106 games in his national team career.

Neymar are still ten goals short of catching up with Brazil's top scorer Pelé (77 goals).

Corona cases in Venezuela

Opponents Venezuela had, after positive corona tests from around a dozen of its delegation members - among them eight players - nominated 15 new players at short notice.

The South American football association Conmebol had previously lifted the limit of players who can be replaced.

"I'm proud of these guys," said coach José Peseiro after the game.

"Everyone knew the difficulties, we couldn't do more."

Brazil captain Casemiro, who had previously expressed his unease about the Copa America being hosted in his home country, said on television: “It could be a friendly, Copa America, World Cup - we play to win.

Venezuela wanted a draw, but we were focused and aggressive in the last third of the field. «The game took place without fans in the stadium.

A few weeks before the start of the tournament, Colombia and then Argentina had canceled the host because of the corona pandemic. Then the Conmebol moved the Copa América to Brazil. The Brazilian national team itself questioned the venue. In the country with 210 million inhabitants, almost 17.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 486,000 people have died in connection with Covid-19 so far.

Nevertheless, the tournament takes place. After Brazil's opening win, Colombia also won their first game 1-0 (1-0) against Ecuador. Edwin Cardona (42nd) scored the goal of the day in the Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba. Before the encounter, two delegation members tested positive for the corona virus in Colombia, the third Copa participant after Venezuela and Bolivia. Those who tested positive are an assistant and a physiotherapist, according to a message from the Colombian Football Association FCF.

"That worries us," said Argentina's superstar Lionel Messi about the corona cases at the tournament and said about the risk of contagion: "We will do everything we can to prevent it from happening to us, but that doesn't just depend on us." Argentina will play in its first game of the tournament on Tuesday night (11 p.m. CEST) against Chile.

ptz / dpa / sid

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-06-16

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