Brazil pile on misery for Argentina in World Cup rout
Neymar scored his 50th international goal as Brazil beat Argentina 3-0 to consolidate their chances of automatic qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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The Barcelona star eclipsed his club mate Lionel Messi in Belo Horizonte, the venue where Germany thrashed Brazil 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals.
Neymar's strike came on the stroke of half-time after Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring with a spectacular effort. Paulinho added the gloss to the scoreline on the hour mark to make it five wins out of five for the Brazil coach Tite who succeeded Dunga in June.
The victory means Brazil have 24 points from 11 of their qualifying 18 games. They are one point ahead of second-placed Uruguay and six points clear of third-placed Colombia.
Argentina are sixth with 16 points. However Messi, who missed three qualifiers through injury, insisted that the two time World Cup winners could still get through to the tournament in Russia despite only taking two points from a possible 12.
"We're down but we're still alive," Messi said as he looked forward to Tuesday's home game against Colombia. "We have to forget the situation we're in and start thinking about Colombia. If we get a result against Colombia it will make things look a lot different."
Argentina manager Edgardo Bauza admitted he had not expected to lose so heavily. "It's a hard defeat," said the 58-year-old. "I did not think we would lose 3-0. I thought it would be an even game. But when they got their second it was all over."
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