Home ›› 28 Nov 2022 ›› Sport
After a brilliant win over Serbia in the opening match, Brazil will face the steady Swiss side in their second match of group G at the Stadium 974 on Monday.
Brazil started their World Cup campaign with three important points against a Serbian side, which has been said to be the dark horse of this World Cup edition. Brazilian attackers put up a brilliant performance to get through the Serbian challenge. Switzerland also gained only a 1-0 win over Cameroon following their domination throughout the entire game.
With the win against Serbia, Brazil are now on an eight-match winning streak, they have not lost a match since that loss against Argentina in the Copa America final. They scored 28 goals in that span, showing the firepower Tite has under his sleeves.
Switzerland, under the supervision of newly-appointed coach Murat Yakin, has recorded a successive fourth win including that of Thursday. In the run of four consecutive wins, they have beaten the likes of Spain and Portugal. Yakin has a different style of play as he likes to play with a back four instead of the back five Switzerland had been playing with for a long time.
Brazil will miss Neymar in the Switzerland match as he has picked up an ankle injury, which will see young Real Madrid star Rodrygo Goes take his place. Right-back Danilo will also miss the match due to injury, which might open the door for Real Madrid defender Eder Militao to start in the match.
Ahead of the match, former Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro backed Rodrygo to fill in Neymar’s void.
“Rodrygo lit up my eyes. He’s a star. God gave him the gift of playing football. It’s beautiful watching him play,” he said.
About Neymar’s absence, Casemiro said, “If we keep talking about Neymar, we’ll be speaking for days and days about the player he is. He’s the star of the team, the one who makes a difference. But we have other top players. Sometimes I feel sorry for opponents given the huge number of options we have.”
Switzerland have no injury concerns, so coach Yakin will have his squad at full strength against the five-time world champions. In the changed formation of the coach, Fabian Schar has lost his position in the back while Denis Zakaria is more likely to be seated on the bench again as he has been out of form lately.
The two sides have faced each other twice in the World Cups, and both ended in a draw. Their latest meeting was in the 2018 World Cup where Switzerland were able to hold the Brazilians to a 1-1 draw in the group stage.
