“I can not inform you what went by my head,” the Paris Saint-Germain ahead said to YouTuber Casimiro, per an ESPN report. “It was essentially the most painful defeat of my profession, for positive. I cried for 5 straight days. It harm me loads that my dream had turned to nothing.”
Neymar hasn’t performed for Brazil because the early-December penalty shootout defeat, in accordance with the report.
Following a 0-0 battle by regulation, the 31-year-old scored what was presumably going to be the game-winning aim within the 106th minute — a strike that tied him with the late Pele for the nation’s all-time document in males’s soccer. Croatia’s Bruno Petkovic put within the equalizer to ship the competition to penalties, nonetheless, the place the victors related on all 4 of their PKs.
Neymar by no means obtained an try within the remaining spherical of kicks.
“I might have most well-liked to not have scored the aim, for it to remain 0-0 and lose on penalties, reasonably than ‘I scored the aim, they equalized and we misplaced on penalties.’ It is a ache that solely the gamers and workers can perceive,” he stated. “It was the worst second of my life. It felt like a funeral, somebody crying on one facet of you, another person crying on the opposite. It was horrible, a sense I do not need to expertise that once more.”
After the match, the son of Croatian winger Ivan Perisic consoled Neymar at midfield.
The 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup kicked off on Thursday in Australia and New Zealand. Brazil’s opening sport might be on Monday in opposition to Panama.
The Brazilian males’s squad has received a document 5 World Cups, however none since 2002.
Neymar has been on the nationwide crew in every of the final three World Cups, in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Brazil was throttled 7-1 by Germany within the semifinals of the 2014 occasion and fell 2-1 to Belgium within the quarterfinals of the 2018 event.
Regardless of his preliminary ideas of retirement, Neymar stated just lately that he’ll be able to roll for the 2026 World Cup, which can happen throughout North America.
“After the World Cup, I did not need to undergo the ache of dropping once more,” he stated. “Seeing my household struggling loads, that weighs closely on me. However they should put up with it once more. Will probably be good. It must be.”
