BRAZIL relied on its star Neymar for two early goals to beat Cameroon 4-1 on Monday and reach the World Cup’s knockout stage for a South American showdown against Chile, a 2-0 loser to the Netherlands.

    Winning Group B with its third straight victory made sure that the Dutch avoided the host so early in the tournament. Instead, the Netherlands will face Mexico, which beat Croatia 3-1 to advance alongside Brazil from Group A.

    Spain beat Australia 3-0 in an inconsequential game between already eliminated teams, a victory providing a little balm on the disappointing defense of its title.

    With free-flowing games and buckets full of goals the rule in this outstanding tournament, it took until the final minutes of the Group A games for Brazil to make sure it advanced as group leader on goal difference over Mexico.

    “We are progressing match after match and that’s important,” Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said.

    Both finished with seven points, with Croatia eliminated with three points, while Cameroon finished with three losses. Brazil finished first because it had a better goal differential than Mexico, plus 5 to plus 3.

    (Continued on P7)

    Beyond the statistics, it again was Neymar who fully lived up to expectations of the 200 million football fans in Brazil with flair and lethal finishing, making the difference with first-half strikes against an African opponent that fought hard for one half before succumbing.

    Neymar used an array of spin moves and delicate touches to get by players, delighting the crowd in Brasilia — including Britain’s Prince Harry.

    Neymar has four goals from three games to lead the top scorer’s standings, edging a group of five players with three goals.

    The Dutch scored twice in the last 13 minutes against Chile to finish the group stage with three straight wins. Quite a turnaround for a team thought to be on the wane with aging stars like Arjen Robben.

    “We wanted to be first in the group. Now we will see what is coming at us,” said Robben, who added an assist against Chile to the three goals he scored in earlier games.

    While Robben is going strong after hitting his 30s, age caught up with the Spanish stars this tournament, particularly in their 5-1 opening loss to the Netherlands. They regained a little pride yesterday. In a game of goodbyes, David Villa marked his final appearance for Spain with a record 59th goal for the national team.

    (SD-Agencies)