RIO DE JANEIRO - Led by captain and icon Neymar, hosts Brazil marched into the final of the men's football competition at the Rio Olympics with an impressive victory against Honduras on Wednesday (Aug 17) afternoon.

It took the Barcelona forward only 15 seconds to open the scoring as he charged down a poor clearance and bundled the ball past onrushing Honduras goalkeeper Luis Lopez.

It was the fastest goal ever scored at the Olympic Games.

The capacity crowd at Rio's 78,639-seater Maracana Stadium were on their feet again in the 26th minute as Gabriel Jesus finished calmly to double Brazil's lead.

The winger and Manchester City new recruit was a constant menace down the left and his interplay with Neymar was proving very effective against the Central Americans.

Nicknamed the "new Neymar", the 19-year-old got his brace eight minutes later as he latched onto a through ball from Neymar and fired his shot high into the net.

Further goals by defender Marquinhos (51st min), forward Luan (78th) and an injury time penalty by Neymar in the second half completed the rout and sends Brazil into Saturday's final, again at the Maracana, in confident mood.

Brazil have never won an Olympic gold in football and this year appears to present the country's best chance.

But the heavily-fancied women's team, led by Marta, lost to Sweden in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

They had beaten the Swedes 5-1 in an earlier group encounter.

Brazil have progressed to three previous finals (1984, 1988 and 2012) of the men's competition and have lost all three.

Neymar was in the side that was shocked 2-1 by Mexico at London 2012.

Germany play 1996 champions Nigeria in the other semi-final in Sao Paolo later on Wednesday (Aug 17).