The Brazilian national team enters its first match in the second round of the Qatar World Cup 2022, and it is the extraordinary candidate to snatch the pass to the quarter-finals when it faces the South Korea national team, but it realizes that the task will not be easy for the team that created a surprise in the first round, and deservedly defeated Portugal.

Before the Brazil match, attention will be directed to Stadium 974, which will host a European-Asian summit that promises a lot, and will bring together the surprise of Group E Japan, and the runner-up of the last round in Russia, Croatia, although the confrontation favors Luka Modric's colleagues.

Titi is in critical condition

The Brazilian national team coach, Tite, received harsh criticism from the fans and the media in his country, due to the unexpected defeat against Cameroon in the last first-round match, which is the first defeat that Brazil has suffered in the first round in 24 years, and exactly since the 1998 World Cup in France (defeated by Norway 1). -2).

It seems that "Tate" prefers to receive criticism over exhausting his main elements in a match that was "formal" after the "samba dancers" secured qualification and the lead before it.

But today's calculations have become completely different from the calculations of the previous match, and there is no longer any room for error against South Korea, although the balance is tilted towards his country due to the great potential difference between its players and South Korean players.

Criticism will not be the only thing that concerns Titi, as there are successive injuries within the group that scare him the most, especially after the absence of striker Gabriel Jesus and Alex Telles was confirmed.

It was confirmed that Jesus and Telles were absent from the rest of Brazil's matches in the World Cup, as medical examinations conducted by Jesus showed that he needed to be out of action for about a month. As for Telles, he may undergo urgent surgery, after his strong collision with a Cameroonian player.

In the press conference preceding the match, the Brazil coach did not hide his concern about the team's clinic being full of injured people, but he expressed his confidence in his elements to achieve qualification for the second round, and also called on his players to "exercise more caution, to avoid repeating the scenario of the Cameroon match," especially since South Korea beat Portugal in much the same way.

Does Neymar appear again?

This is the question that fans of the yellow team are still asking around the world. After his ankle injury in the Serbia match, Neymar missed the second and third matches in the group stage, but reports indicate that he can participate mainly in the South Korea match, after he underwent an intensive rehabilitation program.

Neymar participated in ball training for the first time last Saturday evening, and wrote on his Twitter account, "I feel good, I knew I would do this now," to raise hopes about the possibility of him going into the match.

In addition to Neymar, Danielo and Alex Sandro suffer from an injury that prevented them from playing against Cameroon in Brazil's last group match.

Continue dreaming

On the other hand, the South Koreans are living a beautiful dream on Qatari soil, after they surprisingly reached the second round at the expense of the Uruguay national team, and their historic victory over Portugal 2-1, which is the second qualification in the history of football in the country.

The Koreans hope to continue the dream and set off a new surprise in the “World Cup of Surprises” when they confront the Brazilian giant, but they realize that achieving it will not be easy, and that the nominations will favor Neymar’s colleagues.

This is the first match of its kind between the two teams in the World Cup, but it is not the first at all, as they had previously met in 7 previous friendly confrontations, 6 of which ended in favor of the "samba dancers".

South Korean fans place great hopes on the shoulders of Son Heung-min, the English star of Tottenham Hotspur and the top scorer in the English Premier League championship last season, in order to achieve a surprise and lead the team to rise to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the second time in its history and the first since the 2002 edition, when his country participated with Japan in the World Cup. hosting the tournament.

Son provided an assist to his colleague Hwang Hee-chan to score the goal of South Korea's promotion to the second round of the tournament in the first minute of stoppage time against Portugal.

The match will be held at ten o'clock Mecca Al-Mukarramah local time, on the grounds of Stadium 974.

Eurasian Summit

Before the Brazil match, attention will turn to Khalifa International Stadium at 6:00 pm, where another summit, no less exciting and valuable, will be held between Japan and Croatia.

Japan exploded a resounding surprise in the group stage after it achieved a historic victory over Spain after winning the opening match at the expense of Germany, to lead its group and throw Germany out of the competition, while Croatia occupied the sixth place in Group Six, behind the Moroccan leader after its difficult draw against Belgium without goals.

Japan is armed with its high spirits before facing Modric's colleagues after the victory over the giants of European football, and it also seeks to perpetuate the superiority of the group leaders in this role, as happened in previous matches.

The Japanese national team, which is participating in the World Cup for the seventh edition in a row, aspires to be in the quarter-finals for the first time in its history, after failing to achieve this achievement during its three previous attempts.

Japan lost to Turkey in the Round of 16 in the 2002 edition, which it co-hosted with South Korea, before falling to Paraguay and Belgium in the 2010 and 2018 editions, respectively.

On the other hand, Luka Modric's teammates hope to continue the competition and repeat the achievement of the last edition by reaching the final match.

Croatia hopes to repeat Russia's achievement (Reuters)

The Croats enter the fray armed with a number of stars, especially those who participated in the previous Russia version, such as Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic, Dejan Lovren and Andrej Kramaric.

For his part, Modric expressed his optimism about Croatia's ability to move forward in the tournament and follow the path of the last World Cup, as he said, "We were very united in all our matches in the first round. We deserve to go to the second round."

The Croatian player also added, "We achieved our first goals in the World Cup and passed the group stage, and we will continue the same thing and have the same will," stressing that his country's national team is capable of playing against any competitor.