Best World Cup penalty? Neymar's ice-cold finish for Brazil vs South Korea | OneFootball

Neymar had the eyes of the world on his shoulders when he returned to action for Brazil against South Korea on Monday night.

Having been ruled out of Brazil’s second and third group stage matches through injury, everyone was wondering: would Tite bring him back into the fold for the knockout rounds?

Well, it turns out that the answer was ‘yes’ and the Paris Saint-Germain star quickly set about rubbishing claims that the Selecao are better off without him in the team.

That’s because the five-time World Cup winners wasted very little time in ensuring that they didn’t suffer the same fate as their fellow Portuguese speakers from across the Atlantic Ocean.

Like Cristiano Ronaldo‘s men, they took the lead early on with Vinicius Junior scoring a fine goal, but unlike the 2016 European champions, Brazil quickly doubled down on their advantage.

What did Neymar do vs South Korea?

And that came courtesy of Mr. Neymar himself as he showed typical poise from 12 yards out to score one of the coldest penalties that the World Cup has ever seen.

With Kim Seung-gyu producing antics on the line that have previously caught Neymar out, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Brazil’s talisman might have been feeling the pressure.

But that couldn’t have been further from the case as Neymar produced a finish so nonchalant, so ice-cold that it left the South Korean goalkeeper in a tangle of his own legs – check it out below:

That is just so composed it’s unbelievable.

It’s no secret that Neymar has mastered his particular brand of penalty technique where seemingly as little power as possible is used to score, but even by his standards, that was outrageous.

Plus, as we mentioned, it’s made all the better by the fact that Neymar has actually been caught out before by goalkeepers messing about with their position on the goal line.

That’s because Kim’s antics hearkened back to an infamous penalty of Neymar’s against Brest in 2021 where the shot-stopper’s distraction tactics seemed to force him into a terrible miss.

Video: Neymar’s infamous penalty miss vs Brest

In the case of Kim, however, it didn’t have quite the same effect.

And perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised because the Al Shabab goalkeeper was also between the sticks when Neymar scored a similarly icy penalty against South Korea in June.

On that occasion, the Selecao ran out 5-0 winners and considering that they raced into a 4-0 lead before half-time in their World Cup reunion, it’s fair to say that Kim must be sick of the sight of Brazil and especially their cool, calm and composed star man.