Neymar, Paulinho lead Brazil to 4-1 World Cup qualifying away win against Uruguay

Brazil reigns supreme over South America once again.

After a decade in the (relative) doldrums, its national team program is the best on the continent once more, even if Argentina has reached – and lost – the finals of three straight major tournaments whereas Brazil has made a habit of stranding in quarterfinals.

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But the Brazilians’ re-ascent to the top of the pile was confirmed on Thursday, as they came from behind to beat Uruguay away 4-1 in the resumption of World Cup qualifying.

The victory in Montevideo, where Uruguay had been a perfect 6-0-0 with a 15-1 goal difference thus far through 12 rounds of games, cemented the Selecao’s spot atop the South American pack with a seven-point lead over second-place Uruguay.

As such, Tite’s team is all but assured of a spot in Russia in 2018 with five rounds of games to go. After all, the gap with Chile in sixth place – the highest-ranked team not currently in position to qualify directly or even reach the intercontinental playoffs – is 10 points.

But the manner of Brazil’s comfortable victory was as remarkable as its resurgence after disappointing performances stretching from the 2014 World Cup, 2015 Copa America and 2016 Copa America Centenario all the way back to the 2007 Copa America, the last major trophy the Brazilians have won – or even medaled in. (The 2016 Olympic gold was essentially won by an under-23 side.)

Paulinho, who previously had six international goals for his nation, scored a hat trick, including an 19th-minute screamer to equalize from Edinson Cavani’s early penalty for the home team. Neymar got the third with a splendid lob in the second half.

In the ninth minute, Brazil’s Marcelo chested a ball back to his goalkeeper Alisson. But Cavani intercepted and then went down gratefully when Alisson sprawled for the ball and caught the striker’s feet.

Cavani converted his own penalty kick.

Paulinho, however, would set things right with a screamer 10 minutes later.

On a run through the center of the field, he found a pocket of space and unloosed a long shot that gave goalkeeper Martin Silva no chance.

Seven minutes after halftime, Roberto Firmino turned at the edge of the box and had Silva diving at his low shot. Paulinho was first to the rebound and bundled it home.

And then it came time for Neymar to put the game away with a godly touch. He held off Sebastian Coates in pursuit of a long ball and dinked the ball over Silva with a celestial finesse.

In injury time, Paulinho ran right through the Uruguayan box without attracting any attention. Dani Alves picked him out and delivered a ball behind the line so well-placed that Paulinho had but to chest it into the net. He held up three fingers to make sure he’d counted his hat trick correctly.

That made it 4-1, a disheveling home loss for Uruguay, which now has a resurgent Argentina and Colombia breathing down its neck in third and fourth place, trailing by a point and two, respectively.

Brazil, meanwhile, has just two games remaining against teams currently in a qualifying spots – Colombia in Ecuador – in its five remaining games.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.