In his first appearance since 25 February, Neymar scored a superb goal to help Brazil defeat Croatia 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday.

Brazil, in their first visit to Merseyside since 1995, started on the front foot but almost fell behind 14 minutes in when Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren headed a corner inches wide.

Andrej Kramaric caught Thiago Silva with a careless high foot and almost capitalised on the centre-back’s struggle to shake off the knock, robbing him of possession before shooting straight at Alisson early on in the encounter.

There were then three bookings in a surprisingly feisty first half and Neymar’s first involvement off the bench saw him side-step a potentially painful lunge from Lovren, who was trying to halt his run.

Brazil were finding it hard to fashion chances despite having close to 69% of the ball, with Alisson again forced into action to parry Ante Rebic’s header, as both coaches took the opportunity to make further changes to their sides.

That was until Tite’s men suddenly exploded into life 69 minutes in. Willian found Coutinho in space; he slid the ball to Neymar and the PSG man did the rest, facing up to Duje Caleta-Car before cutting on to his right foot and blasting high into the net.

Coutinho earned a warm reception from the Anfield crowd as he was replaced late on by Fred, who has been tipped to complete a move to Manchester United in the coming days.

It was a current Liverpool hero who sealed a stylish end to the match, though, as Firmino chested down Casemiro’s flighted pass before lifting a neat finish over Danijel Subasic with practically the last kick of the game.

The final score was 2-0 as both teams continue their preparations for their assault on the World Cup in Russia.