Brazil will look to get well from their upset loss to Cameroon as they tackle a South Korea brimming with confidence.
Who: Brazil vs South Korea
The place: Stadium 974
When: December 5, 10pm (19:00 GMT)
Brazil head into Monday’s World Cup last-16 tie towards South Korea preoccupied with the well being of the good Pele and with coach Tite questioning whether or not to recall the Selecao Canarinho’s present quantity 10 Neymar after an ankle damage saved him out of the final two matches.
Tite used his information convention earlier than Friday’s last group sport towards Cameroon to want Pele a speedy restoration after the all-time nice was admitted to hospital in Sao Paulo in the course of the week.
The three-time World Cup winner, now aged 82, has been present process a “re-evaluation” of the chemotherapy he had following surgical procedure to take away a colon tumour in September final yr.
Brazil followers additionally unfurled a banner with a “get effectively quickly” message for Pele earlier than the Cameroon sport, which the Selecao misplaced 1-0, their first defeat on the group stage since 1998.
Brazil have a fearsome vary of attacking choices, even with Gabriel Jesus returning residence injured, however they've scored simply as soon as since Neymar got here off with a sprained ankle of their opening 2-0 win over Serbia on November 24.
“Along with his return, the entire group will enhance,” stated Richarlison, scorer of each targets towards Serbia, on Friday. “I hope he comes again. Everybody noticed how a lot we missed him within the final two video games. I feel him coming again will make me higher.”
If Brazil win at Doha’s Stadium 974 they may advance to a quarter-final towards Japan or Croatia, with a last-four showdown towards nice rivals Argentina nonetheless on the playing cards.
South Korea have been the second lowest-ranked facet to make the knockout stage however the Tottenham Hotspurs ahead was clear that the Brazilians gained’t be taking them evenly.
“They're an aggressive and robust group. We are able to’t afford to make errors,” warned Richarlison.
Nonetheless, the South Koreans will know that the chances are towards them. Coach Paulo Bento’s facet has current expertise of how chastening an expertise it may be to tackle Brazil. The groups met in a pleasant in Seoul in June and Brazil romped to a 5-1 victory, with Neymar scoring two penalties.
However this has been a World Cup of upsets. Brazil, Belgium, Argentina and France – the world’s 4 top-ranked sides – have all misplaced to considerably less-fancied sides within the group levels of this event. 4-time winners Germany couldn't even make it to the knockouts.
The South Koreans have pulled off their very own shock win too: Their event appeared to be over till substitute Hwang Hee-chan popped up in damage time to attain the winner in a 2-1 victory over already certified Portugal on Friday.
They are going to depend on talisman Son Heung-min to steer them towards Brazil on Monday, after he ran himself into the bottom on Friday to make sure his group reached the final 16.
“That is nice however our event isn't over,” stated Son – who occurs to be Richarlison’s Spurs teammate – following the feelings of the dramatic win over Portugal.
“We’ve at all times talked about reaching the spherical of 16 as our goal however we must always now attempt to transcend that,” Son, who shed tears of pleasure, advised Korean media in Doha.
The South Koreans are the one Asian facet to have reached the semi-finals earlier than, after they have been co-hosts with Japan in 2002. On Monday, they are going to be hoping to shock Brazil on their means in direction of making historical past once more.
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