Brazil fired by Neymar hat-trick as Spain, France, Germany win

Friday, 7 March 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Neymar’s hat-trick lit up a powerful Brazil performance as the 32 nations taking part in this year’s World Cup tested out their squads on a busy night of friendlies on Wednesday which also brought victories for Spain, Germany and France. Barcelona forward Neymar was unstoppable for tournament hosts Brazil as they demolished a poor South Africa side 5-0 in the Soweto Soccer City stadium which hosted the 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands. It was also a good day for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo who scored twice in Portugal’s 5-1 win over Cameroon, making him his country’s all-time leading scorer with 49 goals.

But Neymar’s Barcelona team mate Lionel Messi had an off-colour night for Argentina in Romania, vomiting on the field early in a dull 0-0 draw in Bucharest. Home advantage makes Brazil slight favourites to win a sixth World Cup this year, but a host of usual suspects will travel to the south American country with genuine hopes of gate-crashing the Samba party which starts in 99 days. World and European champions Spain are chief among them and they underlined their pedigree with a 1-0 victory over Italy in a repeat of the Euro 2012 final. Pedro scored the game’s only goal in Atletico Madrid’s Calderon Stadium. Germany, also bidding to become Europe’s first winner of a World Cup in south America, edged past Chile 1-0 and 1998 winners France, who struggled through qualifying, beat the Netherlands 2-0. World Cup dark horses Belgium drew 2-2 with African qualifiers Ivory Coast, for whom Didier Drogba was on target, while Switzerland and Croatia also shared four goals. Uruguay, who are in a World Cup group with fellow former champions England and Italy, were held 1-1 in Austria. Ukraine and Russia, the two countries involved in a tense military standoff in Crimea, were both in action. Fabio Capello’s Russia beat Armenia 2-0 in Krasnodar and Ukraine, who missed out on qualification, enjoyed a morale-boosting 2-0 victory over the United States in a match moved from Kharkiv to Larnaca in Cyprus. First-time World Cup finalists Bosnia suffered a jolt as they were beaten 2-0 by Egypt in Innsbruck. Asian qualifiers Japan and South Korea enjoyed victories against New Zealand and Greece respectively.