Friday 27 June 2014

                               
                          Brazil Vs Chile
                                               Belo Horizonte
                                                Kick off: 5pm



The first round of 16 fixture of this years World Cup will see the host's nation Brazil take on Chile in Belo Horizonte.


Both teams will come into this fixture on good form after comfortably progressing through their tough groups. The high expectation on Brazil has lead to them coming under some criticism for their performances especially in the opening game vs Croatia, that criticism was eased after their 4-1 win against Cameroon and with top goal scorer Neymar leading the attack, Brazil will be very confident of getting the win.
Chile on the other hand have been the surprise package with very few people expecting them to progress in a group which contained both of the 2010 World Cup finalist's. They were extremely impressive in their group, especially vs Spain and was credited for their high work rate and fearless attitude.

Team News
Brazil may look to make a couple of changes for this fixture. Fernandinho's impressive cameo display vs Cameroon may have been enough for him to start over Tottenham's Paulinho. Ramires maybe deployed on the right hand side of midfield instead of Hulk to try and break down the flowing attacks of Chile.
Chile made very few changes in their 3 group matches and are expected to name the same line up vs Brazil and will be hoping that Gary Medel will pass a late fitness test.

Key Men
Brazil will be hoping that Neymar can continue his impressive World Cup form which has seen him become the joint top goal scorer with 4 goals, tied with Barcelona team-mate Leo Messi. Chile will place their faith in Barcelona's new goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and if he can produce a performance similar to the one by Mexican goalkeeper Ochoa vs Brazil, then chile will stand a great chance of progressing to the quarter finals.

Prediction

It will be a difficult game for both sides but I feel Brazil have more individual quality then Chile and if this player produce then I can't look past a brazil win. Brazil to win 2-1.