Neymar Jr. scored a brace Friday night at Estadio Olimpico do Pará to lead his side past Bolivia in a World Cup Qualifiers contest. His first goal of the night was in the second half to surpass Pelé as the country's top goalscorer ever, APA reports citing MARCA.
The Al-Hilal SFC forward could have broken the record earlier, but he missed a penalty at the start of the match. Rodrygo opened the score eight minutes later (minute 24) to start what would end in a 5-1 thrashing
Neymar, 31, again nearly scored his historic 78th international goal in the 40th minute, but the celebration would have to wait, with the Bolivian goalkeeper denying what would have been an incredible ending to a beautiful play. He juked six players before shooting and still missed.
Raphinha extended the lead for Brazil in the first minute of the second half and Rodrygo scored his brace less than 10 minutes later.
The fourth goal of the night for Brazil was by Neymar to surpass Pelé and it came off a fortunate deflection inside the box.
Neymar went on to score another goal after Bolivia had broken the Brazilian's clean sheet and made it 5-1. He now has 79 goals in 125 caps.
Pelé's final goal for Brazil was in 1970 and no player had even come within a dozen goals of the legend.
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