The five best games of Neymar’s career thus far

1. Barcelona vs PSG – 2016-17 Champions League Round of 16, second leg

Every superstar player in world football today has had that one special legacy-defining performance. For most, it has come in the Champions League. Messi has had his fair share of iconic moments against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich while Ronaldo has been the star against Juventus and Atletico Madrid.

For Neymar, his one enthralling performance came on a gloomy night at the Camp Nou in 2017.

Barcelona came into the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 down 4-0 to PSG. Their first leg performance was one to forget; PSG pounced on multiple counter-attack goals and quieted the famed MSN trio. Barcelona had completed multiple historic comebacks before, but no team had ever overturned a four-goal first-leg deficit in the tournament’s history.

With manager Luis Enrique’s “if PSG can score four, we can score six” message echoing across the locker room, Barcelona seemed up for the monumental challenge. But as with any memorable comebacks in world football, there needed to be that one player who was going to step up and lead the charge. Many expected Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez to orchestrate a performance to remember, but this time around it was Neymar who became the hero.

To begin the game, Luis Enrique lined his side up in an aggressive 3-5-2 formation that put Neymar out wide, but the Brazilian had complete freedom to hover through to the left half-space. The all-out attacking plan seemed to pay off early on with Barca scoring three goals over the opening 60 minutes, but Cavani’s second-half goal silenced those in attendance and almost ended any hope of a comeback.

However, a free-kick goal by Neymar at the 88th minute instilled hope to the team that maybe they can indeed pull off this miracle. And they did. Moments later, Neymar followed it up with a penalty goal and ended the memorable night with a buzzer-beating, perfectly weighted aerial ball assist to Sergi Roberto that sent the Camp Nou into a frenzy.

Barcelona had completed the four-goal comeback and eliminated PSG in the Champions League for the third time in the decade.

Neymar has since called the match which became known as ‘La Remontada’ the best memory of his career thus far. It is performances like this one that have made Neymar one of the greats of this era.