Russia vs Brazil PREVIEW & PREDICTION 23/03/2018

RUSSIA VS BRAZIL PREVIEW & PREDICTION

At the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia and Brazil face each other on Friday afternoon in a friendly international match. Russia does not want to hit a mud figure at the World Cup as a host country this summer, while Brazil is out for revenge after the failed World Cup mission in its home country four years ago.

Russia:

As an organizer, Russia was of course already directly insured for participation in the World Cup and therefore did not have to take part in the European World Cup qualification. That was obviously nice, but it is also difficult to estimate to what extent Russia is ready for the World Cup in its own country. The European Championship of two years ago was disastrous, because the Russians did not even survive the group stage. Former coach Leonid Slutsky, who will be at the helm at Vitesse next season, was able to take his bags, and Stanislav Cherchesov was appointed as the successor.

With a tight 0-1 defeat against Argentina and a 3-3 draw against Spain as the most recent results, Russia seems very reasonable at first sight, although all of his practice dances are not always the best indicators. Against Spain, Russia played in a 5-3-2 formation, so it is obvious that Cherchesov will continue against Brazil on the same footing. However, he will have to make it Friday night without his best striker Aleksandr Kokorin and Artem Dzyuba, who are both in the rags basket. Also in the back, Cherchesov will have to puzzle for both Giorgi Jikia and Viktor Vasin because of injuries. In any case, it is questionable whether these five players will be fit for the World Cup in time, which makes the practice match against the Brazilians of next Friday even more important. After all, Cherchesov will have to decide who is best at filling vacancies. Players like Roman Neustädter and Ilya Kutepov have only five international matches, but are important contenders to play in the base towards the upcoming World Cup.

-Akinfeev – Kombarov, Kudryashov, Neustädter, Kutepov, Smolnikov – Kuzyaev, Glushakov, Samedov – Aleksey Miranchuk – Smolov

Brazil:

Brazil does not need an extensive introduction, of course. The five-time world champion has a somewhat lesser period behind him, but since the appointment of national coach Tite, he has been back in full swing. With Neymar as a great star, The Divine Canaries were the first to qualify for the World Cup and lost only one of their eighteen World Cup qualifiers in the South American qualifying zone.

Brazil had a very strong World Cup qualification, but The Divine Canaries are a bit scary. Of course, that has everything to do with the injury of star player Neymar, who is far from certain whether he will be fit in time for the upcoming World Cup. Tite will therefore have to find a way to make his team profit without her star. Nevertheless, players like Willian, Paulinho, Gabriel Jesus, Roberto Firmino, Coutinho and Douglas Costa still have a wonderful selection with lots of creativity and scoring skills. Defender Alex Sandro also received an invitation. However, he had to cancel injured, after which Ismaily was called in as a substitute. The debutant is under contract with Shakhtar Donetsk and was therefore more or less ‘in the neighborhood.’

-Alisson – Marcelo, Joao Miranda, Marquinhos, Dani Alves – Casemiro – Costa, Coutinho, Paulinho, Willian – Gabriel Jesus


PREDICTION: Under 2.5 goals @ 1.81

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