Cameroon vs Brazil: Neymar plays down pressure after inspiring side through to knockout stages

Cameroon 1 Brazil 4

Brazil's forward Neymar celebrates after scoring a second goal

Brazil's latest hero Neymar played down the pressure on his shoulders after inspiring the hosts into the last 16 of the World Cup to face Chile.

Neymar scored twice in a 4-1 win over Cameroon, with Fred and Fernandinho getting the others for Brazil.

The 22-year-old, who now in has 35 international goals in 52 appearances, said: "There is no pressure. I've always said there is no pressure when you are making a dream come true and doing something you have sought after since you were a kid.

"I'm now playing in matches that I always dreamed about.

"I just want to help my fellow players not only by scoring goals but doing whatever it takes on the pitch to help us win.

"We are on the right track and the whole team is getting better and getting close to our target."

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted that he would have preferred to face a European team rather than Chile.

He said: "If I could choose I would have picked someone else as Chile are a good South American team, they have quality, they are organised they have the will to succeed.

"I will look at things when all the adrenaline has left our bodies, sometimes when we look at the match again in the cold light of day we see it in a different way."

Scolari also praised Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho for his display after he came off the bench at half-time to replace Paulinho and hinted he could be in the starting line-up for the Chile game.

He added: "I think Fernandinho coming in was critical and we created a number of good chances in attack. Nature doesn't make leaps, things evolve step by step and this is what we are doing."

Cameroon's German coach Volker Finke said the team were "suffering" from their disappointing World Cup.

He said: "Over the last two or three years we have not been that good but we managed to qualify for the World Cup and now we are disappointed we have not won a match.

"It's terrible and we are suffer this but we have gained experience and what we need to do is focus and concentrate for the next challenge.

"The first half wasn't so bad but it's true we need to focus for the whole 90 minutes.

"We need to find the reasons for this - three times we had control of the ball and then lost possession which led to goals.

"But Brazil deserved this victory, they created more chances."

PA