Neymar back, Brazil win

Liverpool, Brazil’s talisman Neymar scored a brilliant goal on his return from injury as Brazil began their World Cup preparations with a 2-0 win over Croatia in a friendly match here today.
The Paris St-Germain star, 26, smashed in a shot, the goal coming off the bar after an excellent move involving Chelsea’s Willian and Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho. Roberto Firmino confirmed victory with a goal in added time.
Neymar, the world’s most expensive footballer, had not played since fracturing a metatarsal and spraining his ankle in February. He did not show any ill-effects of his time out after replacing Fernandinho at the break, and almost immediately made an impression.
He scored after Willian got the ball in the midfield and passed it on to Neymar on the left. The Brazil star ran towards the goal even as the Croatian defenders backed off; Neymar then swivelled and feinted before firing home the ball off the crossbar from eight yards out. This was Neymar’s 54th goal for Brazil, and he’s now just one behind Romario; Pele (77) and Ronaldo (62) are 1-2.
Austria shock Germany

Klagenfurt: Manuel Neuer looks set to go to the World Cup, but Germany’s goalkeeper was unable to prevent his team crashing 2-1 to Austria on his comeback.
Neuer has proven his fitness after eight months sidelined by a fractured foot in timely fashion, with four names to be cut ahead of Germany naming their final 23-man World Cup squad on Monday. But the ‘keeper was powerless to stop second-half goals by Martin Hinteregger and Alessandro Schoepf after Mesut Ozil gave the Germans an early lead. The result is a big concern for Germany head coach Joachim Loew with the World Cup to kick off in less than a fortnight.
The world champions are now winless in their last five games since suffering back-to-back defeats after losing 1-0 to Brazil in Berlin last March. This was Austria’s first win over their neighbours in nearly 32 years — dating back to October 1986 when Rudi Voeller scored West Germany’s only goal in a 4-1 defeat in Vienna.