Brazil take on South Korea in their World Cup last-16 tie as they hope to positively respond after their shock 1-0 loss to Cameroon last time out.
Tite’s side are favourites to reach the quarter-finals and have been boosted by Neymar’s return to training this week although questions remain about his match fitness after recovering from an ankle injury.
South Korea come into the match with confidence following their sensational late victory over Portugal which saw them sneak into the knockout rounds at the expense of Uruguay.
Their best-ever performance at a finals was reaching the semis on home soil in 2002, can they repeat that feat 20 years later? The winner here will take on Croatia in the quarter-finals, after Luka Modric’s side defeated Japan on penalties. Follow all the action with our live blog below, following reaction from the Japan vs Croatia penalty shoot-out
Brazil vs South Korea
Brazil face South Korea in the World Cup 2022 last-16 with kick off at 7pm
Brazil team news: Neymar starts despite fitness concerns following ankle injury
South Korea team news: The matchwinner against Portgual, Hwang Hee-Chan, starts
Japan’s fairytale run finally runs out of road
18:14 , Michael Jones
Japan have never made it past the last-16 at a World Cup. Failures at 2002 and 2010 still stung when 2018 became the most heartbreaking of all, Nacer Chadli’s latest of late goals seeing Belgium roar back from two down in the second-half to beat them at the last.
The pain of that night in Rostov has lived with this Japanese group ever since. “I have never forgotten,” Yuto Nagatomo would say in the build-up to this latest attempt to write new history. He will remember this, too.
Instead it was the same old story, the fairytale this side has been on at this World Cup brutally ended in the most painful fashion possible by Croatia, a bitter final chapter the uplifting tale that came before it didn’t remotely deserve.