The second match in the FIFA World Cup on Monday sees the tournament favourites Brazil looking to move into another quarter final on the global stage. They go up against surprise packages South Korea in an intriguing contest.
Brazil came through Group G on top of the pile but you couldn’t exactly say they had things their own way. South Korea came from the dead to get themselves into second spot in Group H to set up this round of 16 clash.
Where to watch
You will have to tune into ITV 1 in the UK in order to watch this match. The build-up to it begins at 6.15pm with the kick off coming along at 7pm.
Brazil
Brazil were one of the few sides who were able to get their qualification sorted after two matches. That might well be very significant here because it means that they were able to rest near enough their entire starting XI for their third match. They lost that game against Cameroon but they were still able to win the group and now just three days later they will be able to offer up something of a fresh XI to go into battle here.
One big concern for Brazil has been that they have looked little better than ordinary without Neymar. With the attacking stars they have in their squad and the reputation of them being ‘Samba Boys’ we would expect to be dazzled by a Brazil team but that hasn’t been the case with this lot, instead they have been pretty pragmatic. Where they have been good is on defence and that means that they haven’t needed to flourish offensively, but you sense they will have to at some point if they are going to win this tournament.
South Korea
The tournament looked like it was over for South Korea when they could only draw with Uruguay before going down to Ghana in their second match. It left them needing to beat Portugal and hope the other result in their group went their way. They got the win over Portugal in the final minute and then hit the jackpot when Uruguay couldn’t find a third goal against Ghana which would have dumped the Asian side out of the tournament.
This is where things get tough for them though. Unlike Brazil, South Korea were not able to rest their players in their third game. Instead, they had to battle like crazy having fallen behind early and went through to the final minute and with that outing on Friday afternoon, they will have had roughly 73 hours between that game and this so physically this is going to be a tough ask. South Korea will probably set up pragmatically but at some point they are likely to need to find a way to get at this Brazil defence.
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Team News
The good news for Brazil is that Neymar has announced on Instagram that he is back and available for this match after he missed the last two matches with injury. Gabriel Jesus has been ruled out of the tournament. Tite should recall all the starters he rested against Cameroon.
South Korea are hopeful that their defender Kim Min-jae will be fit to start this match after a calf injury kept him out against Portugal. Hwang Hee-chan scored the winner from the bench in that match and could be in line to start here.
Betting
I think this is a tough ask for South Korea. 72 hours is no time at all to prepare for a match let alone doing it after the efforts they have had to put in to their last two group matches. They have ridden emotional highs and lows and exerted an awful lot of energy and reserves could be running on empty in that department. They take on a Brazil side for whom a number of their starters have only played a few minutes in the last week so they will be much the fresher side here.
I don’t think we are doing the Asians a disservice to suggest that Brazil are the better team of the two all things being equal anyway and with their talisman Neymar back to inspire them to a better performance and to remind everyone of his class and that this tournament isn’t all about his PSG teammates Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, I expect to see a good version of Brazil. South Korea might be hard to break down initially but when the favourites do it then much like in the France and England games this week, I expect the floodgates to open.
Tips
Back Brazil (-1) to beat South Korea for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Sky Bet
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