Match Brazil v Croatia Fifa World Cup 12/06/2014

 

 

Match date: Thursday, June 12, 2014

 

Kick Off Time: 21:00

Venue: Arena de Sao Paulo, SAO PAULO, Brazil

The first match of World Cup 2014 comes from Group A and it sees host nation Brazil start as short price favourites for their clash with Croatia in Sao Paulo on Thursday.

 

 

The Confederations Cup 2013 aside, Brazil have been playing friendly matches for the best part of three years. They were foot perfect in winning the the dress rehearsal tournament 12 months ago including a 3-0 win over current World Champions Spain in the final. Brazil have won 15 of their last 16 matches, a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland in a friendly in Basel last August being the exception to the rule. In a bid to win their first world title since 2002, they have turned to the man who was in charge when they won in Japan / South Korea, Luiz Felipe Scolari. Three warm up matches since March have brought three wins accompanied by a clean sheet with Bafana hammered 5-0 in South Africa in March and more recently they beat Panama (4-0) before being made to work hard in their final tune up, a 1-0 victory over Serbia. Brazil took seven points from three group matches in 2010 before beating Chile in the last 16 but they bowed out in the quarter finals, losing 2-1 to the Netherlands.

 

Croatia are second favourites in Group A with the betting suggesting they can just about get the better of Mexico and also Cameroon in the race to reach the last 16. They ran out of steam in the European qualifying group, losing touch with Belgium and having to come through the play offs with a 2-0 aggregate win over Iceland. Three friendly internationals this year started with a 2-2 draw against Switzerland and more recent warm ups saw them beat Mali 2-1 and Australia 1-0. Coach Nico Kovac stepped up from his role with the Under 21's to take over in October last year and he brings along a talented bunch including Modric and Mandzukic. Croatia were not present in South Africa 2010 and they failed to make it out of the group stage in 2002 and 2006 but in 1998 they were beaten semi finalists.

 

probable line-ups:

Brazil (4-3-3): Julio Cesar; Dani Alves, Marcelo, Thaigo Silva, David Luiz; Luiz Gustavo, Paulinho; Oscar, Hulk, Neymar; Fred.
Croatia (4-2-3-1): Pletikosa; Srna, Lovren, Corluka, Vrsaljko; Modric, Vukojevic; Perisic, Rakitic, Kovacic; Olic.

Brazil last 5 matches:
17/11/13 Honduras 0 – 5 Brazil
20/11/13 Brazil 2 – 1 Chile
05/03/14 South Africa 0 – 5 Brazil
03/06/14 Brazil 4 – 0 Panama
06/06/14 Brazil 1 – 0 Serbia

 

Croatia last 5 matches:
15/11/13 Iceland 0 – 0 Croatia
19/11/13 Croatia 2 – 0 Iceland
05/03/14 Switzerland 2 – 2 Croatia
31/05/14 Croatia 2 – 1 Mali
06/06/14 Croatia 1 – 0 Australia

 

Channel 

 

Iran TV3
ZDF Germany
  HRT-TV2
ORF 1
RTP 1
TF1
TVP 1
Ulster TV
ORTM
beIN SPORTS 1 HD
beIN SPORTS 2 HD
beIN SPORTS 11 HD
beIN SPORTS 13 HD
beIN SPORTS 1 HD FR
ZDF HD
ORF eins HD
TF1 HD
Tele Cinco
beIN SPORTS 1 FR
STV scotland
STV (scotland) HD
TVP 1 HD
La Une HD
RTS Deux
RTS Deux HD
SRF ZWEI HD
SRF Zwei

 

 

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