Brazil star Neymar has dismissed England’s chances of winning the 2014 World Cup, ahead of their friendly at the Maracanã on Sunday.
The 21-year-old was part of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side that lost 2-1 against England at Wembley in February, in which Fred scored for the Seleção.
However, despite losing to the Three Lions, Neymar does not feel that the team will pose much threat at next year’s tournament in Brazil.
He told The Sun: “I have respect for a lot of the England players as they have achieved great things at their clubs.
“But, as a national team, I don’t look at England and think they are going to be a real threat at the World Cup.
“We want to win the World Cup in front of our home fans and the two nations I look at as a real threat are Germany and Spain. After that it’s a group including Argentina, Holland, Italy and one or two more.
“But England I don’t even think about.”
The ex-Santos attacker, who recently joined Barcelona in a high profile move, is also eager to secure victory against England to celebrate the first match at the Maracana since its renovation.
“It’s a big game for us on Sunday because we want to open the new stadium with a win,” he added.
“The most important thing is we impress the coach though. There are only 11 places in the team for the opening game at the World Cup and each player needs to prove to the coach he’s worth being in one of those places.”
The game between the two sides will kick off in Rio de Janeiro at 20:00 BST today.
Source: Goal.com
