Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and the 5 Key Talking Points from the International Break

4. Neymar is the best player in the world

Wait, wait. Don’t through your device out the window just yet. Hear, erm.. read me out. I mean he is the best player in the world when it comes to playing internationals.

Nobody, and I mean, nobody, revels in the pressure of wearing their national colours quite like Neymar. Forget the on-one-day, off-the-other Neymar we see at Barcelona... when he wears the canary yellow of Brazil he is nigh unstoppable.

In this break, as is his wont, he stepped up a couple of gears as he absolutely annihilated both Uruguay and Paraguay (both notoriously tight defensively) and inspired Brazil to become the FIRST team to qualify for Russia ‘18.

It’s a magnificent achievement by player and team in what has proved to be a treacherously tough qualifying campaign in South America. Watch out World, Neymar’s Brazil are certainly the team to beat in Russia.

Oh, and a word of appreciation for Tite. He’s taken a team that had been stuck in the doldrums for a long while, ripped away the dead wood, selected personnel purely on the basis of merit and current form, and has thus created a brilliant team that is capable defensively and is irresistible moving forward in attack.

Take a bow, senor.