Brazil coach Dunga feels his side can survive without Neymar

Brazil’s talismanic forward Neymar was sent off after the final whistle in the loss against 1-0 Colombia for attempting to headbutt Jeison Murillo. The verdict on Neymar’s punishment was supposed to be a two-match ban. The suspension was reduced for Neymar to a single game by the CONMEBOL nonetheless, his unavailability will be a major setback for the country’s Copa America hopes.

Brazil coach Dunga, however, believes that his side can cope without the Barcelona star.

“We have played without Neymar before. We have to be ready,” he said.

Suspension for a single game means that Neymar will miss the next group match against Venezuela.

Speaking about the situation, Dunga added: “We are starting to think about how to play.

“We played once without Neymar and now we will see the players we have.”

CONMEBOL made a surprise decision to reduce Neymar's ban to 1 match just an hour after the 2-match ban was announced pic.twitter.com/ntiTGeezmg

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The incident is a bit of a flashback to the last time Brazil faced Colombia in the 2014 World Cup. That time they lost Neymar to injury and lost 7-1 to Germany in the semi-final, this time Neymar could be missing through suspension and Brazil will have to re-focus their energies to making it all the way in Copa America 2015.

Dunga still remains optimistic, he said: “We have a whole group of players.

“Of course we wanted to be able to count on Neymar. We will have to find a way to replace him.”