The Brazilian team sights the quarterfinals in an urgent situation, with two players injured and out of the expedition, two hit and one in the recovery phase; It is not the ideal situation for Tite and his team, before a South Korea willing to surprise.
The Koreans left Uruguay out at the last minute and achieved one of their most prestigious victories against Portugal, warning signs for a Brazil, which has lost its aura of invincibility with the defeat against Cameroon.
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Tite took advantage of the little significance of the match to rotate most of the starting eleven. stuck nine changes and this Monday’s eleven will have nothing to do with what was seen against Cameroon. The central pair Thiago Silva and Marquinhos will returnCasemiro will return and to the middle, and Vinicius Júnior, Richarlison and Raphinha will be at the top.
The great novelty will be the return of Neymar, as confirmed by Tite at a press conference. The Brazilian, with only two training sessions in his pocket, will have minutes against South Korea. It only remains to know if as a starter or as a substitute. “It will depend on how I am,” Tite explained.
The problems for Brazil come from the sides, since the only one who is 100% is Dani Alvesand this is not a reliable option for this stage of the tournament. Alex Telles will not play again and Alex Sandro is touched. Faced with this situation, Tite will have to line up Éder Militao in the right lane and Danilo, a changed band, in the left.
The Juventus winger at least has experience in that position, but he is not the ideal option for a Brazil accustomed in the past to Roberto Carlos, Cafú and Marceloand that now he will have to play with two full-backs that are depleted for not being in his position.
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This should not affect your options. Brazil is a much better team than South Korea and once the group stage is left behind, only the best should play. “I want to go out with my best team”, admitted Tite, who is playing to put the sixth star on the ‘Canarinha’ shirt and that the knockout phase begins against one of the surprises of the tournament.
Entrusted to the quality of Heung-min Son and the shot of Gue-sun Cho, South Korea returns to the round of 16 for the third time in its history. They did it, that way, in 2002, when they climbed to the semifinals, and also in 2010, when Uruguay stopped them.
Expectations are low – Brazil is the big favorite-, especially if one takes into account that in the last match between these two teams, in June Brazil thrashed 1-5 in Seoul, with a brace from Neymar. In fact, Brazil has never lost to an Asian team in a World Cup.
– Possible lineups:
Brazil: Alisson; Militao, Silva, Marquinhos, Danilo; Fred, Casemiro, Paquetá 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).
Time: 8:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. in Paraguay).
