Neymar moves second behind Pele in Brazil's all-time scorers list
What's the story
Brazil's Neymar moved behind Pele in the nation's all-time leading scorer list. The Paris Saint-Germain forward achieved the feat by scoring a hat-trick in their 2022 World Cup qualifying win over Peru. Brazil went on to beat Peru 4-2 to register two wins from two games in the World Cup Qualifiers, South American group. Here are further details.
Brazil
Brazil score four past nine-men Peru
Peru took the lead in the sixth minute, before Neymar equalized with a penalty just before the half-an-hour mark. The hosts went ahead 2-1 next as Richarlison equalized once again for Brazil. Neymar scored another penalty, before netting his third in the 94th minute. Peru had two players sent off and ended up with nine men.
Record
Neymar goes past Ronaldo to become Brazil's second-highest scorer
Pele leads the tally for Brazil with 77 goals in 92 appearances. Neymar, who raced to 64 goals with his hat-trick, occupies the second spot. He has achieved the mark in 103 caps for the national team. Meanwhile, former legend Ronaldo had scored 62 goals for Brazil in in 98 appearances. Notably, these three are the only players with 60-plus goals for Brazil.
Numbers
Notable numbers scripted by Neymar
Notably, Neymar has 43 assists as well and is second only behind Pele in this category as well. In his last three games for Brazil, Neymar has scored five goals, besides making three assists. He has also registered 33 successful take ons, besides creating a total of 11 chances. Neymar went past Zlatan Ibrahimovic (62) and Robert Lewandowski (61) in terms of international goals.
WC Qualifiers
Here's how the 10-team table looks like
Brazil occupy the the top place with six points from two matches. Arch-rivals Argentina, who beat Bolivia 2-1 away, have also registered two wins from two games and are second. Colombia, who drew 2-2 against Chile, occupy the third place and are above Paraguay on goal difference. The latter edged out Venezuela 1-0. Meanwhile, Ecuador thrashed Uruguay 4-2 to move fifth.