Barcelona star Neymar failed to provide the expected flying start to Brazil’s quest for a maiden football Olympic gold medal as the hosts were held 0-0 by 10-man South Africa in their Rio 2016 opener Thursday.
Neymar is by far the biggest name taking part in the football competition and has been tasked with restoring pride to Brazilian football after a catastrophic 7-1 defeat to Germany on home soil at the 2014 World Cup.
However, he endured a frustrating afternoon on a sandy and slow surface in Brasilia as South Africa held out despite Mothobi Mvala’s red card half an hour from time.
Group A is now in a four-way tie on one point after Iraq and Denmark also played out a scoreless draw earlier on Thursday.
In contrast to the vast swaths of empty stands across the six cities being used to host the men’s and women’s football tournaments on the opening two days, the hosts commanded a near-capacity 70,000 crowd.
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