SOWETO, South Africa (AFP) — Neymar scored a hat-trick as Brazil ended a run of narrow victories over South Africa by cruising to a 5-0 triumph at Soccer City stadium in Soweto yesterday.

A much-hyped friendly between the last and next World Cup hosts lacked bite as the ‘Selecao’ exploited woeful Bafana Bafana (The Boys) defending.

Oscar opened the scoring on 10 minutes, Barcelona star Neymar struck once in the first half and twice in the second, and Fernandinho got on the scoresheet as well.

Brazil had won four previous games between the countries since 1996 — all by one-goal margins — but showed no mercy this time.

It was the final warm-up for the 2014 World Cup title favourites before the May announcement of their 23-man World Cup squad.

South Africa, who stunned World Cup and Euro title-holders Spain 1-0 at the same stadium last November, were overawed and outclassed.

Coach Gordon Igesund has been branded a ‘dead man walking’ after poor tournament results and this loss greatly lessens his chances of a new contract in mid-year.

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said: “It was not an easy game. The scoreline does not tell the story. South Africa played well — they moved the ball well.

“They are a good team. It’s a surprise they are not at the World Cup. The difference was that Brazil have very special players.

“We are happy with what we saw, but there are one or two things we need to work on, and that will be done at training sessions. The players worked hard for the team and not themselves.”

Understandably glum Igesund said: “Brazil played much better than us and the first and third goals were bad ones to concede.

“We only played well in patches and that was never going to be good enough against the World Cup favourites.”

South Africa gave a first cap to goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, 22, in the absence of injured captain Itumeleng Khune with centre-back Thabo Nthethe taking over the armband.

Brazil also introduced new faces as Scolari gave first starts to Bayern Munich defender Rafinha and Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho.

It did not take the South Americans long to establish control before a crowd that grew to 51,000 despite an early kick-off and heavy mid-day rain.

A Brazilian goal was inevitable and it arrived on 10 minutes as Oscar outpaced Nthethe to a Rafinha pass and lobbed the ball over Williams.

Tortoise-slow Nthethe suffered against the slick visitors and his defensive partner Bongani Khumalo was an early injury casualty, giving way to Siyanda Xulu.

The persistent pressure told again on 41 minutes with Neymar the scorer, hammering the ball past Williams from close range.

Brazil made a planned half-time strip change from yellow and blue to all blue and 25 seconds into the second half they were three goals ahead.

Neymar had time and space he would not normally be accustomed to and calmly lobbed the ball over Williams.

South Africa introduced Ayanda Patosi just past the hour and he almost scored with his first touch, forcing veteran Julio Cesar into an acrobatic block.

Fernandinho netted 11 minutes from time, latching on to a loose ball and giving Williams no chance, and Neymar completed his hat-trick in stoppage time from point-blank range.

Other international friendly results yesterday:

At Madrid, Spain — Spain 1 (Pedro 63) Italy 0

At Leiria, Portugal — Portugal 5 (Ronaldo 21, 83, Meireles 66, Coentrao 68, Edinho 77) Cameroon 1 (Aboubakar 43)

At Paris, France — France 2 (Benzema 32, Matuidi 41) Netherlands 0

At London, England — Australia 3 (Cahill 8, 32, Jedinak 16) Ecuador 4 (Martinez 57, Castillo 61-pen, Valencia 77, Mendez 90+3)

At Stuttgart, Germany — Germany 1 (Goetze 16) Chile 0

At Brussels, Belgium — Belgium 2 (Fellaini 18, Nainggolan 51) Ivory Coast 2 (Drogba 74, Gradel 90+2)

At London, England — England 1 (Sturridge 82) Denmark 0

At Warsaw, Poland — Poland 0 Scotland 1 (Brown 77)

At Dublin, Ireland — Republic of Ireland 1 (Long 8) Serbia 2 (McCarthy 48-og, Djordjevic 60)

At Cardiff, Wales — Wales 3 (Collins 12, Bale 63, Vokes 70) Iceland 1 (Williams 26-og)

At Nicosia, Cyprus — Cyprus 0 Northern Ireland 0

At Klagenfurt, Austria — Austria 1 (Janko 14) Uruguay 1 (Alvaro Pereira 66)

At St Gallen, Switzerland — Switzerland 2 (Drmic 34, 41) Croatia 2 (Olic 39, 54)

At Larnaca, Cyprus — Ukraine 2 (Yarmolenko 12, Devic 68) United States 0

At Bucharest, Romania — Romania 0 Argentina 0

At Ankara, Turkey — Turkey 2 (Erding 2, Adin 58) Sweden 1 (Toivonen 55)

At Innsbruck, Austria — Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 Egypt 2 (Gedo 52, Salah 64)

At Barcelona, Spain — Colombia 1 (Rodriguez 20-pen) Tunisia 1 (Khazri 35)

At Blida, Algeria— Algeria 2 (Soudani 45+2, Taider 56) Slovenia 0

At Podgorica, Montenegro — Montenegro 1 (Dejan Damjanovic 1-pen) Ghana 0

At Piraeus, Greece — Greece 0 South Korea 2 (Park Chu-Young 18, Son Heung-Min 55)

At Dubai — Azerbaijan 1 (Yunuszade 27) Philippines 0

At Tbilisi, Georgia — Georgia 2 (Chanturia 25, Ananidze 76-pen) Liechtenstein 0