Neymar praises Brazil's 'great' first-half display against Egypt

Jul 27, 2012 12:00:00 AM

The forward acknowledged his side's drop in performance levels after the break, which allowed their opponents to stage a comeback, but was ultimately relieved to hold onto the win

Neymar has commended Brazil for their prolific first-half display in Thursday's 3-2 victory over Egypt at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Goals from Rafael, Leandro Damiao and Neymar, all before the break, proved enough for the Selecao to take all three points in their first match of the tournament, in what was a flying start from Mano Menezes' men.

However, Brazil had to survive a major scare in the second half as Egypt reduced the deficit on goals from Mohamed Abo Trika and Muhafaẓat al Gharbiyya, and Neymar admits his side must be more vigiliant in the future.

"The most important thing was the victory, that is what we have to focus on," he told Goal.com after the match.

"We will have to fix some things to prevent making mistakes again and letting our opponent grow in the game.

"It was a good game, not only on my part, but also on the team's part. We had a great first half.

"After the break we dropped the pace and we ended up making things harder for us."

Brazil's next match in the Olympics will be against Belarus, which gets under way on Sunday.

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