Doha (AFP)
Brazil, seeking to win its sixth title and consolidate its record, hopes to restore the services of its star, Neymar, when it meets South Korea, in the final price round in the Qatar 2022 World Cup football “Monday” at Stadium 974, where it wants to send a message of hope to its legend Pele, who suffers from illness. .
Pele, 82, the only World Cup winner three times, was transferred to a hospital in Sao Paulo earlier this week for what doctors described as a “re-evaluation” of the chemotherapy he had been undergoing since surgery to remove a colon tumor in September last year. .
As for Neymar, he sprained his ankle at the end of the first match against Serbia (2-0), and missed the next two matches against Switzerland (1-0) and Cameroon (0-1). Full.
Neymar underwent intensive treatment in recent days and did not leave the hotel until Friday, when he was on the grounds of Lusail Stadium to encourage his teammates against Cameroon and seemed relaxed and smiling. He also participated in the warm-up period for his team on the outskirts of the stadium.
In general, the World Cup finals did not smile at Neymar until now. In the World Cup that his country hosted in 2014, he suffered a severe injury in the quarter-finals in his back against Colombia and did not complete the tournament in which the “Seleção” suffered a historic loss against Germany 1-7 in the semi-finals, then It finished fourth, with a new loss against the Netherlands, by three goals.
In the World Cup in Russia, Neymar suffered a metatarsal injury about three months ago and fought it and was not fully fit.
Neymar has not won any major title with his country so far, and contented himself with the Olympic gold medal when his country hosted the Games in 2016. Even when the Brazilian national team won the Copa America title in 2019, Neymar missed the entire tournament due to his injury as well.
The Brazilian team doctor, Rodrigo Lasmar, did not want to confirm whether or not Neymar would participate in the match against South Korea, and he said in this regard after the match against Cameroon: “They have not yet returned to training with the ball, Neymar and Alex Sandro. They will start that, and it is important to monitor how the reaction will be.” What happens over the next two days determines whether they participate or not.
There is no doubt that the Brazilian national team needs Neymar’s skill on the field, and this was evident in the match against Switzerland, where the “Seleção” lacked a player who accelerated the tempo and waited until the 82nd minute for Casemiro to score the match’s only goal.
Despite the abundance of strikers in the ranks of the Brazilian national team, it settled for scoring only 3 goals in 3 matches, which is the lowest percentage among the teams nominated for the title in the current World Cup.
Coach Tite is facing a problem in the left-back position, as Sandro was injured in the match against Switzerland, then Alex Telles followed suit in the match against Cameroon, to miss the tournament with Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus.
Tite described the loss against Cameroon as “collective. The coaching staff and I bear responsibility for it. This makes us reconsider. There is a short time between one match and another. The matches have become equal, and modern football has become global.”
He added, “No team won three matches in a row, and the three teams that secured their qualification after the second round lost their third matches in the group stage, which are Brazil, France and Portugal against Cameroon, Tunisia and South Korea.”
He continued, “As Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia, and Germany and Spain to Japan, the results speak for themselves. All matches are difficult, and we must be aware of this matter.”
The Brazilian national team met its Korean counterpart 7 times, winning 6 of them, the last of which was 5-1 last June, and losing one, but it is the first time that it has faced its Asian counterpart in an official tournament.
On the other hand, the South Korean national team returned from afar in this tournament. After snatching a goalless draw from Uruguay in its first match, it lost to Ghana 2-3, then entered the last round and the initiative was not in his hand, but things turned out in his favor in the end through his late victory. Portugal 1-2, and at the same time, Ghana lost to Uruguay 0-2, which officially eliminated the last two teams from the race.
South Korean captain Heung-min Son said about the confrontation against Brazil: “Our goal was to reach the final price, and this has been achieved, but now our goals are high, and we want to do our best to achieve them.”
“No one knows what could happen in the world of football, especially now. We have the opportunity to beat Brazil and we will prepare in the best possible way to confront it,” added the captain of the national team, who achieved the best result in the history of Asian teams when he reached the 2022 semi-finals at home.
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