Neymar-less Brazil to be tested against a solid Swiss team

Pre-tournament favourites Brazil face Switzerland in a World Cup Group G clash on Monday at Stadium 974.

With a resounding win in their opening fixture, Brazil lived up to those expectations placed on them before the finals.

Brazil's first opponents, Serbia, were highly fancied to be one of the dark horses at this tournament, but a dominant performance from the Selecao made them look very ordinary.

Complete domination from first whistle till last rewarded Tite's side with a 2-0 success over the Balkan nation, thanks to a Richarlison double in the second half.

After some discussion in both the Brazilian and British press about whether Richarlison justified a start given his mixed start at Tottenham Hotspur, the forward answered his critics and put on the kind of display which led Spurs to spend £60m to prise him from Everton.

His fabulous second goal lit up the Lusail Stadium, the same venue he and Brazil will hope to return to for the final in three weeks' time, and based on their display on Thursday, they have a very good chance of doing so.

That win sealed an eighth successive victory for the five-time World Cup winners, and they remain unbeaten since their defeat in the 2021 Copa America final.

Those eight wins have seen them score 28 goals, and even though they only managed two against Serbia, it should have been a lot more.

Serbia were fortunate Brazil wasted many chances and that Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in goal was on form, as they racked up 24 shots and comfortably kept the Europeans quiet.

Switzerland were much more efficient in their opening day win over Cameroon, getting the job done despite not setting the competition alight.

They did concede just once in their final six qualifiers after Euro 2020 when Yakin came in though, so there is no doubting they will make it tough for Brazil, like they did in the last World Cup when they held them to a 1-1 draw.

Thursday's win saw them record a fourth successive victory in competitive fixtures now, a run which has seen them beat Spain and Portugal, so to make it five against Brazil would really make everyone sit up and notice.

Team news

The big news coming out of the Brazil camp in the aftermath of the Serbia game is that Neymar will miss the rest of the group stage after suffering an ankle ligament injury in the latter stages of the match.

Considering that the Paris Saint-Germain player is given a free role for his national side, Tite may need to make some tactical adjustments with him missing, so it could give a chance for midfielders like Fred to come in.

Right-back Danilo will also miss the rest of the group stage with a similar injury, potentially opening the door for Dani Alves to appear in a World Cup match for the first time since 2014.

Real Madrid's Eder Militao is probably the more likely man to come in on the right-hand side of defence though.

Players to Watch

Brazil: Vinicius Junior 

Richarlison rightly took the limelight for his efforts against Serbia, but he is not the only quality attacker Brazil have at their disposal.

With Neymar out, the onus will be on Vinicius Junior – who has shown his world-class ability at Real Madrid – to step up.

Before he was taken off inside the final 15 minutes of Thursday's match, Vinicius had been involved of 50 per cent of Brazil's 16 shots, having four attempts himself and creating as many chances, including the assist for Richarlison's stunning second.

Switzerland: Breel Embolo

Embolo has scored in three of his last four matches for Switzerland, with all three of his strikes being the winner in each game.

The last Swiss player to score in consecutive World Cup games was Alexander Frei in 2006, while the only players to score in Switzerland's first two games at a World Cup are Leopold Kielholz in 1934 and Andre Abegglen in 1938.

Prediction

Brazil are unbeaten in their last 16 group stage games at the World Cup, and they are aiming to become the first team to go 17 without defeat in the group stages of the competition.

Opta's model backs them to do just that, giving Brazil a 62.7 per cent chance of victory.

The probability of a draw is 21 per cent, while the supercomputer rates the likelihood of a Switzerland win at 16.3 per cent.