Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni was surprised to hear that Brazil had sacked Mano Menezes this week, after being impressed by the Seleção’s performance in their recent 4-0 friendly victory over the Asian Cup champions.
Zaccheroni, 59, is in São Paulo for the draw for next year’s Confederations Cup, to be held in Brazil, and he told Lancenet! that he thought Brazil were excellent in the fixture held in Poland.
He said: “The team impressed me, I saw an excellent Brazil. I was very surprised with the sacking of Mano, although Scolari is a man of history.”
And the Italian, who took over the role as Japan manager in 2010, is happy with the progress his own team is making.
“We have not reached a conclusion (how our level is), but we’re on our way. When we face teams from Asia, we believe in our size and strength.
“In 2013, we expect that we will meet our colleagues from Asia with another reality. We are not afraid of what faces us,” he added.
