Off the wire
• Miami tennis results  • Tabarez lauds Suarez maturity  • International soccer results  • Aussie dollar lifts on greenback weakness  • Higuain set to start for Argentina against Bolivia  • U.S. Justice Dept. scraps request for Apple's help in phone hack  • Chinese envoy calls for greater role of women in countering extremism  • UN reports new allegations of sexual abuse in Central African Republic  • UNICEF launches "Unfairy Tales" of refugee, migrant children  • UN chief not to retract word "occupation" on Western Sahara refugee conditions  
You are here: 　 Home

Dunga predicts difficult World Cup qualification for Brazil

Xinhua, March 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil coach Dunga said on Monday that the South American countries' campaign for the 2018 World Cup finals will be decided in the last match of the regional qualifiers and, for that reason, it is important to always play to win.

"We have to aim for goals and wins. The table is very tight, therefore with one victory you could be at the top," said Dunga during a news conference on Monday in the training center near to Porto Alegre, where the national team have been training since Saturday ahead of Tuesday's match against Paraguay.

After drawing 2-2 on Thursday with Uruguay, Brazil are third in the table, level with Paraguay and Argentina who also have eight points.

On Tuesday Argentina will face Bolivia.

Therefore a victory for Paraguay could mean that Brazil, the five-time World Cup champions, could leave the top four group that will qualify for the World Cup without having to go through the play-offs.

Brazil travelled to Paraguay's capital city of Asuncion on Monday afternoon where they will face the local team on Tuesday.

Dunga said he would like his team "to play as they did for the majority of their first half against Uruguay," even though he added that it "is difficult to make a significant change to a team who haven't played or trained together for 128 days," in reference to the time that has passed between the last qualifiers matches in 2015 and now.

Dunga said he expected Paraguay "will use their experience, high-quality players and their characteristic strong style to pressurize us."

Dunga did not confirm if he will use the same starting line-up as in Sunday's match which Gil and Ricardo Oliveira replaced David Luiz and Neymar who were unable to play due to second bookable offences.

"We will choose (the starting eleven) according to the players training, how they have played in the recent matches, and the characteristics that we will need on the pitch," said Dunga.

"We have other options, with strong and mobile forwards. We will analyze everything well before making a decision," added the coach. Endit