Presidential Of 2022 World Cup Last 16: Brazil Vs South Korea: Can Warriors Drink Take Advantage Of The Samba Team's Injury Crisis?

South Korean national team (Twitter @TheKFA)

JAKARTA - Brazilian coach Tite has apparently been confused by the problem of injury to his players, including those who are regular to start.

"The physical demands are getting bigger, while the time is short, this is the cumulative effect of the game and sometimes you don't have the ideal time to recover," Tite said.

Tite did not allow the media to attend Brazil's training session two days ago but made sure that Neymar, Alex Sandro and Danilo had to be on the pitch to test their body condition.

If the two full-backs can't be played, then centre-back Marquinhos may be shifted to the left, while aging defender Dani Alves, who is the oldest Brazilian player against Cameroon, can be tried on the right.

If Tite chose to use Real Madrid centre-back Eder Militao as a full-back, as he did when Danilo missed Switzerland, Brazil would not have any other defenders on the bench.

If Neymar is still out of action, Rodrygo is likely to be Tite's first option, as the Manchester United, Fred and Casemiro duo, in the midfield that Tite has installed against Switzerland are less convincing. In addition, Bruno Guimaraes could be an alternative, pushing Lucas Paqueta forward into playmaking roles.

Meanwhile, South Korea, as usual, will rely on Son Heung-min to lead them.

South Korea will try to take full advantage of the injury crisis facing Brazil to record its second win in eight meetings with the Samba Team so far.

But what's even more important is that South Korea, which was the only Asian team to ever reach the World Cup semifinals in 2002, hopes to make a surprise and score gold ink in football history by overthrowing Brazil.

Predictions of the first eleven players

Brazil (4-3-3): Alisson; Eder Militao, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Danilo; Lucas Paqueta, Casemiro, Neymar; Raphinha, Richarlison, Vinicius Junior

South Korea (4-2-3-1): Kim Seung-gyu; Kim Moon-hwan, Kim Min-jae, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Jin-su; Hwang In-beom, Woo-young Jung; Hwang Hee-chan, Lee Kang-in, Son Heung-min; Cho Gue-sung.

Statistics and head to head

Prior to the match which took place at Stadium 974, the two teams met seven times, but never happened in the World Cup. Brazil won six times and South Korea was indeed once in a friendly in 1999. In this year's June friendly match in Seoul, Brazil won 5-1.

Brazil advanced to the knockout round after beating Serbia and Switzerland in the group stage but fell 0-1 in Cameroon's hands after the South American side had already made sure to qualify for the next round to rest most of its regular starters.

South Korea made a dramatic reversal in a 2-1 win over Portugal thanks to an additional minute goal scored by Hwang Hee-chan to advance to the round of 16. Before that Korea only won once from their last 11 World Cup games.

Neymar is still doubtful about appearing in Tuesday's match that morning as he is still trying to recover from an ankle injury.

Unbeaten Brazil during the 2022 World Cup qualifiers have won the World Cup five times and are favorite to become world champions in 2022.

Brazil has been in the World Cup finals since 1930 but has not reached the final since their 2002 champions.

South Korea was the only Asian country to reach the semifinals of the World Cup when they hosted Japan in 2002. They had escaped from the 2010 World Cup group stage before surrendering 1-2 to Uruguay in the round of 16.