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.