Brazil captain Neymar said he was delighted for Gabriel Jesus to end his Seleção scoring drought, having not scored in canary yellow since before the World Cup.
Jesus took a lot of criticism for failing to find the net in Russia, but he opened the scoring against Saudi Arabia in Riyadh after a wonderful through ball from Neymar.
The Brazil captain said the whole team were willing Jesus to score, “I was very happy today. I was wanting a goal from Gabriel. I would trade five of my goals to help him
“It was all very unfair what he endured at the World Cup, the criticism was above what was necessary. I was happy to help him score again. I was really thinking about it. We knew he needed it.”
The captain admitted that the game had been a low key affair with little excitement for the watching public in Riyadh, but said the conditions played a part.
“Nobody likes to play like that. It was complicated. There wasn’t much of a breeze. That ends up influencing the game. But we managed to play a good game anyway.”