Luiz Felipe Scolari said of Saturday's opponents, Chile, that 'I'd rather play any of the others'. Photograph: Clive Mason - Fifa/FIFA via Getty Images
Back in December, Luiz Felipe Scolari gave an interview to TV Globo's Esporte Espetacular programme, just after the World Cup draw had been made, and talked about the one team that he hoped Brazil would avoid in the last 16. 'I hope Chile don't qualify,' the Brazil manager said. 'I'd rather play any of the others. They're a pain to play against. They're well organised, they're intelligent, they have a good side. It's better to play against a European team.'
Scolari said on the eve of the Cameroon match that some people had 'made fun' of him for talking Chile up at the time. The implication was clear: nobody in Brazil is laughing now. Brazil face their fellow South Americans in Belo Horizonte on Saturday and everyone associated with the Seleção is anticipating an awkward game against Alexis Sánchez, Arturo Vidal et al. 'Chile are really capable,' Scolari said after Monday night's 4-1 win over Cameroon.
How good Brazil are is still difficult to gauge, even after three group games. Neymar lifts them to another level, plain and simple, and Scolari knows that is a waste of time trying to argue otherwise. 'As Argentina depends on [Lionel] Messi, and other teams depend on one player or another, that's OK,' Scolari said, when asked whether he was concerned just how much Brazil rely upon the 22-year-old Barcelona forward. 'Very high-level players, star players, make a difference to any team, not only Brazil.'
In the lead up to the Cameroon game, one Brazilian newspaper had highlighted the fact that 'the national team does not have a song that moves people in this World Cup'. There was, however, one chant that was still reverberating around the bowels of the Estádio Nacional long after the final whistle on Monday: 'Olé, olé, olé, olé, Neymar, Neymar.'
The fans love him and Brazil without Neymar does not bear thinking about. Neymar knows as much, yet he looks, and sounds, completely at ease with the extraordinary weight of responsibility on him in this tournament. 'I've always said that there is no pressure when you are making a dream come true, something that you sought since you were a kid,' he said after his two goals against Cameroon took his World Cup tally to four. 'Today I am playing in matches I always dreamed about.'
While it remains to be seen how Chile will try and nullify Neymar - against Cameroon he drifted in from the left flank and was playing as a second striker at times, even ahead of Fred on occasions, which makes him extremely difficult to mark - Jorge Sampaoli, their Argentinian coach, will no doubt relish the chance to expose the weaknesses in a suspect Brazil defence.
No matter how good Dani Alves is going forward, he is a liability at the back. In the opening group game, Croatia exploited the space that opens up in behind Alves, and Cameroon's goal came from the same area after the Brazilian lost out in a one-on-one duel. The player that beat him -despite Alves having two chances to stop him - was the Cameroon right-back.
It was far from the only occasion in the first half when Brazil looked vulnerable against a Cameroon team that were already eliminated from the World Cup. Scolari, however, refused to accept that his defence is a cause for concern. 'I don't have a single drop of fear, they are fantastic, they are wonderful,' he said.
It felt like an over-the-top response and brought to mind what Scolari had said 24 hours earlier when he was quizzed about Paulinho and the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder's poor form for Brazil. 'I trust him blindly,' Scolari said. 'I think he's a wonderful player, I admire him profoundly. He might not be at his best moment but he is a player I fully trust.'
Scolari was saying what Paulinho needed to hear. The true picture became clear at the start of the second half against Cameroon, when Scolari decided enough was enough and substituted Paulinho. Brazil had been getting overrun in midfield and Paulinho had completed only nine passes in 45 minutes.
Fernandinho came on in his place and confirmed what anyone who regularly watched the Premier League last season would know: he is a far more accomplished player than Paulinho. The Manchester City midfielder was involved in the build-up to Fred's goal and he also scored Brazil's fourth, after a lovely exchange with the same player. Fernandinho will surely start against Chile.
As for Fred, this was the shot in the arm he badly needed. It was not a great performance from him by any stretch and his close-range header, when it was nigh on impossible not to score, ought to have been ruled out for offside, but the striker climbed onto the team bus with a goal to his name and, for once, there was no post-match inquest about his inclusion.
'I spoke to him before the match started, he was very anxious,' Scolari said. 'Fred was getting rid of the ball very quickly, he was anxious to score a goal, things have to happen in a natural way, it was the same in the Confederations Cup [last year]. Gradually we got the balance. Fred knows I have full trust in him. He's still not the Fred we saw at the Confederations Cup, but the way he played [against Cameroon], if you see the pictures from this match, he had a different position. This was a benefit to Fred and to the whole team, and the tendency is for him to grow even more.'
The same might be true of the hair of on his upper lip, which Neymar - the man's influence seemingly knows no bounds - claimed was the key to Fred ending his drought. 'I told Fred you need to have moustache because then you are going to score. When he scored, I said: 'That was the moustache, I told you.''
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/24/neymar-fred-paulinho-luiz-felipe-scolari-world-cup
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