2014 World Cup: Brazil vs Mexico preview

June 16, 2014
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Brazil v MexicoTournament hosts Brazil enjoyed a hard-fought and somewhat controversial triumph over Croatia in their opening fixture and they will have to improve in order to defeat Mexico as well.

El Tri proved their worth by completely outclassing Cameroon, overcoming two wrongfully disallowed goals to win the tie 1-0, which is enough to suggest they can cause problems to the Seleccao as well.

Despite going into the 2014 World Cup on the back of nine successive victories, Brazil were not believed to be in perfect form, as witnessed by the under-par display in the final warm-up game against Serbia.

The Seleccao indeed start the tournament slowly, allowing Croatia to take the lead, but they showed a lot of character, in spite of the help from the referee, to overturn the one-goal deficit and run out 3-1 winners.

Such a victory will certainly take some press off the players’ shoulders, but also act as a reminder that things can always go wrong unless the team give their best.

Second group game against Mexico could prove to be even more difficult for the hosts, but Brazil have been made 1.33 (1/3) favourites to claim another three points.

After scoring a brace in the opening match against Croatia, Barcelona superstar Neymar is 1.91 (10/11) to score anytime.

Luiz Felipe Scolari is unlikely to make major changes to the side, although Zenit star Hulk is doubtful with a groin problem.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cesar – Alves, Silva, Luiz, Marcelo – Paulinho, Luiz Gustavo – Willian, Oscar, Neymar – Fred.

If United States hadn’t scored two late goals against Panama, Mexico wouldn’t have even made the play-offs, but El Tri seem to have taken great advantage of the second chance they received.

Miguel Herrera’s side prepared well for the tournament finals in spite of the defeats to Bosnia and Portugal, and they looked quite impressive in the opening fixture against Cameroon.

Mexico were extremely unfortunate to have two goals chalked off for non-existent offside, but their domination eventually told as Oribe Peralta scored the only goal of the game.

The narrow win and a very good performance against Cameroon will give the team much needed confidence ahead of the clash with Brazil, so maybe there is some value in backing El Tri to score at 1.77 (7/9).

With no fresh injuries to report, coach Miguel Herrera is almost certain to field an unchanged side to that which defeated Cameroon.

Probable starting line-up (5-3-2): Ochoa – Aguilar, Rodriguez, Marquez, Moreno, Layun – Herrera, Vazquez, Guardado – Peralta, Dos Santos.

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