Tite glad for extra time to prepare, 'no complaints' from Scalony
Brazil coach Tite said he was happy to have been placed in Group G following Friday's World Cup draw in Doha as it will give his team more time to prepare.
The World Cup kicks off on November 21 with hosts Qatar taking on Ecuador.
Brazil's first match will be three days later against Serbia, before further fixtures against Switzerland and Cameroon.
"Whatever time you can have with the players, training, is an advantage," said Tite.
It is usually considered better to start the tournament earlier rather than later as it gives teams more time between matches the further they progress into the competition.
While on paper five-time former winners Brazil appear clear favourites, Tite pointed out that their opponents had already qualified ahead of some football heavyweights.
"We're talking about the elimination of Italy and Portugal at the hands of Switzerland and Serbia" respectively in the European group stage where only the pool winners qualified automatically, Tite told Brazilian channel SportTV from Doha.
Portugal did eventually manage to qualify for the World Cup after a play-off victory over North Macedonia, who shocked Italy in the previous round.
"And we also have Cameroon who are very strong in Africa," added Tite.
"I watched the Switzerland match, they played right after us during the qualifiers. It was against Italy, they were up 1-0 from the start and almost made it 2-0 but ended up drawing.
"They're world-class, a high level so we'll also have to play at a high level."
Brazil, who breezed through their qualifying campaign unbeaten and set a new record for points in the single South American group, played both Serbia and Switzerland in the last tournament in Russia.
They beat Serbia 2-0 but drew 1-1 with the Swiss.
Brazil have not played a European side since beating the Czech Republic 3-1 in a friendly in March 2019.
But Tite is not concerned.
"What I can assure you of is that eight months before the World Cup starts is a lot of time to arrive well prepared."
Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic was in no doubt who is the team to beat.
"When people talk about football, the first word is Brazil. I respect a lot Brazil, it is always the favourite," he said, adding "but I love to play against hard teams."
Meanwhile, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni admitted on Friday that his team's World Cup draw could have been a lot worse after being paired with Mexico, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
The Albiceleste were the top seeds in Group C when the draw was made in Doha.
The two-time winners will begin their campaign on November 22 against the Saudis.
"We cannot complain but we cannot be pleased either," Scaloni told Argentine TV channel TyC Sports.
"We think we can have a good group phase but we have full respect for all of them."
Their toughest opponents could be Mexico, whom Argentina defeated in the last 16 of both the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.
"Historically they are opponents that have been difficult for us," said Scaloni, who represented Argentina as a player in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, in which is only appearance was against Mexico.
"They played a great match against us and we won in extra-time. It was a very difficult match. Mexico have a history at the World Cup."
Poland are "a good national team with good players, well-known ones".
As for Saudi Arabia "they had a great qualification campaign and maybe they're not the strongest in the group but they will be the home team because it's the biggest stadium with 80,000 people and it will probably be full of Arabs," said Scaloni.
In fact, Arab neighbours Qatar and Saudi Arabia have had a fraught recent relationship.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of mostly Arab countries that severed diplomatic relations with Qatar over alleged support for terrorism.
The diplomatic crisis lasted until January 2021, although not before the Saudi coalition had written to FIFA asking the world governing body to strip Qatar of its hosting rights.
Qatari sports broadcaster beIN Sports, which owns the exclusive rights to broadcast the English Premier League in the Middle East, also threatened to scupper a bid by the Saudi Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United last year over accusations of media piracy.
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