Brazil to prevail in the spill-thrill match
Brazil to prevail in the spill-thrill match
Stage is all set for teams to knock others out or get knocked out. Like the group phase, Brazil again feature in the opening match of the round of instant elimination Saturday against the team they prefer to avoid.
Brazil coach Luiz Felippe Scholari didn’t like the prospect of facing Chile so early in the tournament. Brazil haven’t lost to Chile in more than a decade, and has never gone down on home soil. Why should then the Big Phil worry about Chile? Scholari reasons it flatly: They are South Americans, they have the strength, they have the speed and they have the will. A South American country are never comfortable another South American country.
Yet, the man who inspired Brazil to their fifth World Cup must have some plan up his sleeves. His biggest relief is striker Neymar, the highly gifted 22-year-old who is getting better with every match. His four goals in three group matches is absolutely amazing, considering the fact that the miss-joined midfield of Brazil failed to provide adequate supplies upfront. Scholari has to solve this midfield problem and beef up further his defense against Chile.
Chileans are bubbling with plenty of confidence following the way they played their group matches, and the scalp of defending champion Spain must have been a huge shot in their arms.
Arturo Vidal will certainly be the Chile kingpin once again. Vidal limped off the pitch during Chile's 2-0 loss to Netherlands but, with the extra few days’ off, he should be raring to go against the hosts.
The playmaker is yet to find his best since his knee surgery in May. But Chile will be desperately hoping that he will revive his all-conquering Juventus form against Brazil. If he is somewhere close to his best, Chile should be able to negate the impact of Oscar and Paulinho in the midfield and spark sudden counter-attack.
Chile has a lot of speed down the wings, and they will try to exploit the area down the flanks. Dani Alves and Marcelo love going forward and leave a space behind in the defense. The problem is that that they are slow in tracking back. Here Alexis Sanchez can cause quite a problem for the Brazilian defence.
Starred by David Luiz, possibly the best defender in tournament, the Brazilian fort will certainly be tested frequently. But the good news for the five-time champions, their defence looked quite impeccable in the last group match.
In my view, the safest formation against the speedy Chileans will be 4-2-3-1, which Scolari used against Cameroon and for much of the Confederations Cup.
For Brazil, much will depend on how Fred fared.
One of the weak links in the Brazil side is up top. Fred played really well at the Confederations Cup, but there's no getting around the fact that his level of performance has dipped during the World Cup.
Neymar is much better playing down the left with Oscar through the center. Fred also links up much better with the Barcelona forward when he's cutting inside rather than running up the middle.
In addition, if the Chilean defense doesn't consider Fred a threat, it can focus more of its attention on shutting down the supply lines between Neymar and Oscar.
Fred's pretty much undroppable at this point because Scolari didn't take another replacement to the World Cup. He's gotta make the most of what he's got, but that might not be good enough to take out Chile.