Brazil will be anxious to avoid the nightmare scenario of a round-of-16 showdown with Spain as they launch into the World Cup.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side start as firm favorites to top Group A against Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon, and then go on to win the World Cup for a sixth time, but Scolari will have warned his side against the dangers of complacency. The penalty for failing to win the group could in all probability be a meeting with Spain in the second round.
Sections of the Brazilian crowd booed the team after they made hard work of beating Serbia 1-0 on Saturday, but Scolari remains confident.
Photo: Reuters
“I think we come into the World Cup in good shape. We are keen for things to get started now,” Scolari said.
Brazil open the tournament against Croatia in Sao Paulo tomorrow, a match that should be a formality for the hosts. Croatia have not beaten Brazil in two previous encounters, which included a defeat in the 2006 World Cup.
Croatia finished a distant second to Belgium in the qualifiers and were made to work hard before securing their place in Brazil with a 2-0 aggregate victory over Iceland in the playoffs.
Croatia’s task against Brazil has been made more difficult by the suspension of star forward Mario Mandzukic following the Bayern Munich striker’s dismissal for a stamp in the playoff win over Iceland.
On-form Brazil would expect to take all three points in their second game against Mexico on Tuesday next week. Mexico only reached the finals following a playoff win over New Zealand after scraping through in fourth place in the CONCACAF qualifiers.
Yet while Brazil comfortably beat Mexico 2-0 at the FIFA Confederations Cup last year, the hosts know that on their day El Tri can be awkward opponents and Mexico have a lot to prove after their narrow qualification.
Mexico defeated a strong Brazil side 2-0 in a June 2012 friendly and later that year scored an upset 2-1 win to deny Brazil a long-awaited first Olympic gold medal at the London Games.
It remains to be seen whether Mexico can trip up Brazil once more.
Their final preparations saw them suffer 1-0 defeats to Bosnia and Portugal, and the form of star striker Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is a concern.
Mexico central defender Hector Moreno believes the squad will benefit from being unburdened by expectations back home.
“We’re arriving under a lot less pressure than on past occasions, when people expected great things from the team,” Moreno said. “The general feeling is that we don’t have anything to lose and that’s how we’re approaching it. I think that we’ll pleasantly surprise a lot of people.”
Mexico’s meeting with Croatia is likely to be the decisive game in the battle to see who joins Brazil in the round-of-16, with Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions arriving in Brazil in a familiar state of disarray.
The Africans only headed for Brazil after a last-ditch wrangle over pay and bonuses for the tournament was resolved.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later