SAMARA, Russia — There are no curses, Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio had insisted, no reasons to be superstitious about the team’s apparent inability, one World Cup after another, to advance to the quarterfinal round. There are simply good game plans, he said, and good players.

Hoodoo or not, Mexico on Monday had its World Cup run ended spectacularly, maddeningly, by one of the world’s elite players, Neymar, who scored a goal and assisted on another to lead Brazil to a 2-0 win in a round of 16 game at Samara Arena.

It was a depressing finish for Mexico, which has now crashed out of seven consecutive World Cups in the round of 16.

In a multidimensional performance showing all the light and dark of the game, Neymar, 26, was the hero, the villain, the most graceful player in the stadium and, for many, the most vexing.

“I think we controlled the game, mostly,” said Osorio, who repeatedly criticized Neymar, without calling him out by name, for what he perceived to be an unacceptable amount of playacting in the second half: “I think this is a very negative example for the world and the world of football and all the children following this game.”

Heading into the tournament, Mexico had invested in their mental well-being. They hired a psychologist to bring a level of lucidity to the players’ collective mental state. The players and fans rallied around the phrase “imaginemos cosas chingonas” (a distinctly Mexican sentence that translates roughly to “Let’s imagine amazing things”) uttered by striker Javier Hernández in a fit of passion before the tournament.

A thrilling 1-0 win over Germany, the defending champions, helped the team start the tournament on a euphoric note.

But Brazil, with its overflowing talent, was a challenge too difficult to overcome.

“We’re sad, disappointed, obviously, with a dream that has ended,” Hernández said after the game. “It hurts.”

Also Monday:

Belgium 3, Japan 2: For a moment, it looked to be the greatest game in Japanese soccer history. Up 2-0 against Belgium, Japan was looking at a first-ever trip to the World Cup quarterfinals. But Belgium unleashed its world-class quality and ripped off three straight goals, the last coming in the dying seconds of regulation, to crush Japan’s hopes. In the fourth minute of added time, Belgium went on a four-on-three break, led by Thomas Meunier, who slid the ball across to Romelu Lukaku, who faked and let the ball go clear to Nacer Chadli, who punched in the winning goal and set off a wild celebration in the stadium and across Belgium.