Spirit of samba comes alive

Richarlison's seal dribble and Neymar's nifty feet eventually culminated in samba celebrations -- Brazil's jogo bonito was on display in Qatar on Tuesday at Stadium 974 where the Selecao barely left any tricks up the sleeve to entertain the crowd on way to making it to the quarterfinal by crushing South Korea 4-1.

Brazil were at their magical best on a night when they looked to be cut from a very different cloth.

With a host of legendary figures like Cafu, Roberto Carlos, and Ronaldo, all of whom have dazzled in the canary yellow, watching on from the stands and the motivation transferred from the greatest protagonist in Brazil's footballing folklore, a hospitalised Pele, Tite's troops rose to the occasion.

Buoyed by the return of their current starman Neymar, Brazil put on a show with scintillating skill, technique, guile, and a bag full of party tricks as they went 4-0 up at halftime without even breaking a sweat, rolling back the years to bring the samba spirit that doesn't show up often in the modern era.

It almost seemed as if the carefree Samba boys were just enjoying a game of football in the streets of Rio.

The three group-stage matches, despite the dominance shown by Tite's men, still left a lot to be desired, especially by their fans, who always expect more than just wins from a Brazil game. That yearning was finally sated.

Tite's men, in their quest for the Hexa, stuttered against Cameroon after fielding a second-string side. But at the business end of the tournament, the 61-year-old coach welcomed a plethora of first-team starters as he left nothing to chance against South Korea. Returnees Richarlison, Neymar, Lucas Paqueta and Vinicius Jr all got their names on the scoresheet with the latter opening the floodgates just seven minutes into the game.

Neymar converted a penalty to take his team 2-0 up. For Brazil's third, Richarlison, who started the move, knocked the ball three times with his head before rolling it to Marquinhos, who squared it to Thiago Silva, while the striker kept on with his run. The final pass from the Brazil skipper put Richarlison through as he rolled it past the South Korean goalkeeper to complete one of the sleekest goals of the tournament which could only be topped by the worldie he produced against Serbia.

And by the time Paqueta darted in the box to volley home their fourth goal, South Korea knew there was no way back for them in the game.

Neymar and Co produced one of the most complete performances of the tournament so far. The tag of favourites never weighed down the five-time World Champions, but perhaps they needed such a Brazil-esque display to justify the tag after a meek group stage performance.