The Brazilian team is looking forward to the quarter-finals in an urgent situation, with two players injured and out of the expedition, two hit and one in the recovery phase; It’s not the ideal situation for Tite and his team against a South Korea ready to surprise.
The Koreans left Uruguay at the last minute and scored one of their most prestigious victories against Portugal, warning signs for a Brazil that has lost its aura of invincibility with the defeat to Cameroon.
Tite took advantage of the game’s minor significance to rotate most of the starting eleven. He made nine changes and this Monday’s eleven will have nothing to do with what was seen against Cameroon. The central pair of Thiago Silva and Marquinhos return, Casemiro returns and in the middle, and Vinicius Júnior, Richarlison and Raphinha will be on top.
The big news will be Neymar’s return, as confirmed by Tite at a press conference. The Brazilian, with only two training sessions left, gets minutes against South Korea. It only remains to know whether as a starter or as a substitute. “It will depend on how he is,” Tite explained.
The problems for Brazil come from the sides as Dani Alves is the only one who is 100% and this is not a reliable option for this stage of the tournament. Alex Telles is not going to play anymore and Alex Sandro has been hit. Faced with this situation, Tite Éder will have to line up Militao in the right lane and Danilo, a modified tyre, in the left lane. At least the Juventus full-back has experience in that position, but he is not the ideal option for a Brazil that has been used to Roberto Carlos, Cafú and Marcelo in the past and will now have to play with two exhausted full-backs. being in their position.
This should not affect your options. Brazil is a much better team than South Korea and once the group stage is over only the best are allowed to play. “I want to go out with my best team,” admitted Tite, who plays to get the sixth star on the ‘Canarinha’ shirt and who starts the knockout phase against one of the surprises of the tournament.
Relying on the quality of Heung-min Son and Gue-sun Cho’s shot, South Korea returns to the round of 16 for the third time in its history. That’s how they did it in 2002, when they climbed to the semifinals, and also in 2010, when Uruguay stopped them.
Expectations are low -Brazil is the big favourite- especially when you consider that Brazil won 5-1 in Seoul in the last game between these two teams in June with a brace from Neymar. In fact, Brazil has never lost to an Asian team at a World Cup.
– Possible setups:
Brazil: Alisson; Militao, Silva, Marquinhos, Danilo; Fred, Casemiro, Paqueta or Neymar; Vinicius, Richarlison and Raphinha.
South Korea: Seung-gyu; Moon-hwan Kim, Min-jae, Young-gwon Kim, Jin-su Kim; In-beom Hwang, Woo-young Jung; Hee-chan, Kang-in Lee, Son and Gue-sung Cho.
Referee: Clement Turpin (FRA).
Stadium: Stadium 974 (Doha).
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
