The best — and the worst — of Neymar on show as Brazil beat Costa Rica

Why is it always about him?

Neymar might well ask the same rhetorical question that Mario Balotelli once had printed on his vest, when the former Manchester City star could not keep out of the papers.

Now it is Neymar who attracts headlines like flies around a jamjar, the centre of attention wherever he goes, the main talking point in St Petersburg from a game where did not even make the man-of-the-match contenders. That debate was between Brazil’s Philippe Coutinho, who finally broke Costa Rica’s resistance in the first minute of stoppage time, and Keylor Navas, who made a string of fine saves to keep the central Americans alive for so long.