Brazil v Peru Preview

Brazil take on Peru in Salvador on Tuesday, aware that nothing less than a win will suffice. The Seleção have taken 4 points from their opening three encounters, which is slightly underwhelming but no disaster given that tricky encounters in Santiago and Buenos Aires are now out of the way. But as with their previous […]
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sambafoot_admin
2015-11-17 19:27:00

Brazil take on Peru in Salvador on Tuesday, aware that nothing less than a win will suffice.

The Seleção have taken 4 points from their opening three encounters, which is slightly underwhelming but no disaster given that tricky encounters in Santiago and Buenos Aires are now out of the way. But as with their previous home qualifier, a 3-1 win over Venezuela in Fortaleza, Dunga knows that his men are under pressure to deliver against Peru and with some degree of conviction.

Brazil faced Peru in their opening Copa América encounter back in June and only scraped a 2-1 victory with a stoppage time goal from Douglas Costa. Predictably, Neymar was the star on that occasion, equalising just minutes after Peru had taken a second minute lead, before conjuring a sublime piece of skill to tee up Douglas Costa with the last kick of the game. The captain was somewhat subdued in Buenos Aires on Friday and it’s becoming a notable trend when Brazil play meaningful opponents.

Chile at last year’s World Cup and Colombia, both at the World Cup and in the Copa América as well as Argentina, have been able to crowd him out and strangle his influence. Brazil’s threat can lack diversity and teams know that crowding around Neymar is a good start in enervating the Seleção attack altogether. However, it’s difficult to see Peru managing to negate the effect of the talisman. It will be interesting to see how Dunga configures his attack in this game.

Against Argentina, he moved Neymar to the left of the front three, with Ricardo Oliveira at the arrowhead of the attack, Douglas Costa dropping to the bench. Lucas Lima started in midfield as the creative hub. Despite his precious equaliser, the Santos man struggled to exert any influence on proceedings. Neymar was buried in blue and white shirts with his every move and feint and Ricardo Oliveira cut an isolated figure in attack. At home, I would expect Dunga to bring Douglas Costa back into the fold on the left hand side and move Neymar into the false 9 position.

Willian’s mixture of graft and technique on the right hand side make him a firm choice. Behind the attack, Dunga will need to consider whether Lima’s performance was convincing enough to see him retain his place with Oscar and Kaká competing for his spot. I fancy that the coach will stick with Lima and give him the chance to impress in a home match that you would expect Brazil to dominate territorially. Gil will slot into the central defence ahead of the suspended David Luiz.

There, he will meet a familiar foe. Much of Peru’s threat is channelled through Flamengo striker José Paolo Guerrero. Guerrero was a teammate of Gil’s at O Timão until May this year, a fact that Dunga touched on during his Monday press conference. It’s difficult to know whether this insider knowledge will bless either party with any kind of advantage. Wing heeled forward Jefferson Farfan poses further threat, using his dynamism to good effect on the counter attack for the Peruvians.

He scored the winner last time out against Paraguay. Farfan plays principally from the right wing, but Peru may be persuaded to move him to the left, where he can take advantage of any space left by the roving Dani Alves. By comparison, left-back Filipe Luis is the much more conservative of Dunga’s full-backs. Peru play a 4-2-3-1 ordinarily, but one would imagine it will morph into more of a 4-5-1 for large spells of the match, when Brazil will probably monopolise possession. Peru are dangerous on the break, but I’m still backing the Seleção to overcome that threat with another 3-1 home win. Neymar (x2) and Willian with the goals, Guerrero to score for Peru.

Predicted line-up: 23.ALISSON, 15.DANI ALVES, 3.MIRANDA, 14.GIL, 16.FILIPE LUIS, 17.LUIZ GUSTAVO, 8.ELIAS, 20.LUCAS LIMA, 19.WILLIAN, 7.DOUGLAS COSTA, 10.NEYMAR (c).  

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by
sambafoot_admin
Nov 17, 2015