World Cup CHECK | Brazil – Favorites again after home fiasco

The disgrace of Belo Horizonte should be erased through a successful World Cup tournament in Russia. The new team boss Tite and superstar Neymar are big hopefuls: after a brilliant qualification, they should make their dream of a sixth title come true. In 2014, the burden of the home tournament ultimately fell too heavily on the shoulders of the Sugarloaf Wizards. Without the injured Neymar, the “Selecao” experienced total disaster in the semi-final against eventual world champions Germany. After the embarrassment at the Estadio Mineirao, which entered common parlance as “Mineiraco”, the most successful football nation with five World Cup titles licked its wounds extensively. At some point, however, the country returned to the order of the day in a very effective way.

In the summer of 2016, Adenor Leonardo Bachi, whose nickname “Tite” goes back to a mix-up when he was a teenager, succeeded the hapless Carlos Dunga. He realized his vision of the national team in almost record time, which scores points with both organization and playful sophistication. Dunga handed over the Brazilians in sixth place in the qualifying table, and they stormed through the rest of the program undefeated under Tite and became the first team to qualify for Russia. The 41 goals scored were a record, and with only eleven goals conceded, Thiago Silva and Co. also provided the best defense in South America.

In the 19 games with Tite there were 15 wins, three draws and only one defeat - in June 2017 in a test in Melbourne against arch-rivals Argentina (0-1). Together with Germany, the Brazilians are the top favorites for the title with all well-known betting providers. Brazil won the most recent duel between the two superpowers 27-1 in Berlin on March 0th – a small but still relatively insignificant revenge.

Not dependent on Neymar Tite quickly settled on one tribe and rarely rotates. The 222 million euro man Neymar is on display, although dependence on him is less than four years ago. From the Brazilians' point of view, that's a good thing, as there is still a question mark over the form of the Paris Saint-Germain attacker. Following his foot injury, Neymar has not played a game since February 25th.

Other cornerstones are left-back Marcelo, Casemiro in front of the defense and Renato Augusto and Paulinho further up in midfield. In the center of attack, Tite relies on Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus. A bitter setback is the loss of defender Dani Alves due to injury after cruciate ligament surgery.

The Brazilians, who play their last World Cup test against Austria in Vienna on June 10th, have been drawn into the unpleasant Group E. You can't afford any slip-ups against Costa Rica, Serbia and Switzerland, otherwise the programmed revenge campaign could end early. It starts for Brazil on June 17th in Rostow against the Swiss “Nati”.

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World Cup CHECK | Brazil – Favorites again after home fiasco

Four years ago, the Brazilian national soccer team suffered its most painful defeat in a 1-7 defeat against Germany.

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