vs. Location: Arena Corinthians (Itaquerão), São Paulo Brazil roster: Goleiros Alisson (Roma) Weverton (Atlético-PR) Ederson (Benfica) Zagueiro Gil (Shandong Luneng) Marquinhos (PSG) Miranda (Inter de Milão) Thiago Silva (PSG) Laterais Fagner (Corinthians) Filipe Luis (Atlético de Madri) Marcelo (Real Madrid) Mariano (Sevilla) Meio-campo Casemiro (Real Madrid) Diego (Flamengo) Fernandinho (Manchester City) Giuliano (Zenit) Paulinho (Guangzhou Evergrande) Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) Renato Augusto (Beijing ) Willian (Chelsea) Atacantes Diego Souza (Sport) Douglas Costa (Bayern de Munique) Firmino (Liverpool) Neymar (Barcelona) With a berth in Russia 2018 virtually guaranteed, Brazil plays its first official home match of 2017 as it hosts Paraguay at Arena Corinthians. With a 7th consecutive WCQ win under its belt, Brazil returns to home soil from a victorious 4-1 expedition in Uruguay, a gala exhibition which showed an otherwise high-octane and high-scoring team the true and only absolute World Cup contender in South America is Brazil. This Brazil, managed by Tite and with players from Tite's days as a club manager, will not possibly feel more at home as Arena Corinthians, as indicated by its name, is the stadium of Corinthians, the last Brazilian side managed by manager Tite before he too over the national team. As is well-known, a number of players from Corinthians' highly successful stint earlier this decade have followed Tite to the national team, such as Fagner, Renato Augusto, and Paulinho (the hat-trick hero of the March 23 rout in Montevideo's Centenario Stadium). Paraguay had a win on the same night, as it earned a 2-1 victory against Ecuador at Defensores del Chaco. Those 3 points were much needed for Paraguay to keep its 2018 dreams alive, as it now only totals 18 points and sits at 7th place - strikingly, only 2 points away from 5th place Ecuador. The Paraguayans will have their work cut out for them. Paraguay has been a headache for Brazil in recent competitions, having eliminated Brazil on PKs in Copa América 2011 and 2015. In this current qualifying tournament, Paraguay was seconds away from a 2-1 victory against Brazil, when Dani Alves evened the scoreline. Brazil has a perfect 3-for-3 record as host vs. Paraguay in this WCQ format, with 2-1, 4-1, and 2-0 wins (2010, 2006, and 2002). Paraguay became more respected as its late 1990s version demonstrated a very rugged defense (one which Zidane's France only broke through in sudden death in 1998), but that has not been their reality as they have allowed 18 goals in 13 matches (and scored only 13, with a goal differential of -5). Manager Francisco Arce, a Palmeiras icon in the late 1990s, will definitely spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to thwart Brazil's offense, which is this tournament's best. As it is said in Brazil, "o Brasil tem tudo para ganhar o seu oitavo jogo consecutivo" (Brazil has everything going well for it to win its eighth consecutive match). Even if other results don't cooperate, Brazilian fans will almost certainly go into a months-long lull before WCQ resumes in late August after Brazil and Paraguay finish their Tuesday confrontation in Itaquera.
Tite convoca Mariano para a vaga do suspenso Daniel Alves contra o Paraguai https://t.co/sqKhT1wbhz pic.twitter.com/ZUfThKAjSi— ge (@geglobo) March 24, 2017
RA, Paulinho, Tite at home ? My ass ! Nobody will more at home than this guy .... The artilheiro of Arena Corinthians. Tite's winning streak surely is doomed. PS. Menos de 4 eu nem comemoro.
Even though you're saying this as a joke....Tite's honeymoon might come to a quick end if he's the 1st coach to lose our 1st ever home WCQ!!
It would be good if all this hype was real and didn't come to perception from corinthians clubists, which tend to compare Marcelinho to Juninho Pernambucano, Pirlo, Zico, Platini, Ronaldinho - too much love and too little reason. Nevertheless I hope Brazil can win against Paraguay, although history shows that after 70 Brazil only went well in world cups when they had problems with qualifications.
Well I will say that Marcelinho 'Angel Feet' Carioca was one of the best dead ball specialist in Brazilian futebol!!
Perhaps in history, but this subject should be avoided before Marcelinho idols act like a Barcelona vs Real Madrid is happening
Something tells me you're not going to celebrate tomorrow night, then. But I do believe we will win the match. PS: Francisco Arce is Paraguay's coach. I wonder how he'll feel as a former palmeirense in Arena Itaquera.
Fagner is supposed to be starting at rightback, so lets see how that goes!! I'm predicting a 1-1 draw!!
Not that I care about it at all, but if we win tomorrow, we'll take over the #1 spot in the FIFA ranking.
No, did not. We're talking about problems like "if you don't win this match you are out", current situation is Brazil #1
That's just coincidence (in 1994/2002 due to not calling Romario/Ronaldo's injury). Did you check if there is at least a correlation between having difficulty in qualifying and being successful in WCs? BTW, Brazil did have serious problems this time around until Tite showed up.
If I'm not mistaken, this is Brazil's first game in Itaquera since the World Cup. Some physical changes happened since the match vs. Croatia. It'll be weird to see Brazil play there again.