With Neymar at the helm, the Brazilian national team landed in Doha this Saturday to seek the sixth World Cup title in Qatar-2022 and thus end a 20-year drought.
The ‘Verdeamarela’, one of the great favorites to lift the cup on December 18, he traveled from the Italian city of Turin, where he trained for five days to prepare his debut against Serbian on Thursday, November 24.
The Tite team was the last of the 32 selections to set foot on Qatari territory.
The 26 summoned landed at the international airport around 11:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. in Paraguay) and left for the Westin Doha Hotel, in the modern center of the capital, where they will stay during the competition.
They must train for the first time on Sunday afternoon at the Grand Hamad stadium, home of the Al-Arabi club and center of operations during the tournament.
Also read: Cafu predicts that Brazil will be champion in Qatar
The ‘scratch’ has the great challenges of putting an end to the hegemony of the European teams in the 21st century World Cups (they won four out of five), and giving the maximum prize to its star, Neymar.
The ’10’ of Paris Saint-Germain will play at the age of 30 his third World Cupafter the disappointing Brazil-2014 Y Russia-2018.
‘Ney’ up after starring in a great mid-season at PSG, where he scored 13 goals and provided 11 assists in 19 games in the French league and the Champions League.
But the one in Qatar could be his last World Cup: In October 2021, he said that after the appointment he would retire because he did not have the “mental capacity to continue being a footballer.”
Tite and his club and national team teammate, defender Marquinhos, then qualified their words.
Know more: Neymar and Dani Alves will lead Brazil in search of the sixth World Cup
The truth is that the star dreams of the title since he was a child, a conquest that could also put him in the race for the elusive Ballon d’Or, another of his great aspirations.
Under his talent, the ‘Canarinha’ hopes to extend the distance as the most successful in World Cups, with five conqueststhe last one in South Korea and Japan-2002.
The Brazilians arrive with 15 consecutive games without losing (12 victories, seven of them online, and three draws), although with the unknown of how they will respond to heavy European casts.
The last time they faced a squad from the Old Continent was on March 26, 2019, in a friendly in which they defeated the Czech Republic 3-1 in Prague. Before, they fell 2-1 with Belgium in the quarterfinals of Russia-2018.
His most recent setback was against Lionel Messi’s Argentina (1-0), another of the favorites in Qatar, in the 2021 Copa América final played at the legendary Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
