Tite hopeful on Neymar return

Neymar is in line to return from injury for Brazil’s last-16 World Cup clash with South Korea on Monday but will need to prove his fitness first, coach Tite said.

The 30-year-old superstar forward suffered an ankle injury in Brazil’s opening win in Qatar over Serbia and then missed the last two group matches.

“Regarding Neymar, he’s going to train this aternoon and if he’s OK, he will play tomorrow,” said Tite on Sunday.

It is not the news South Korea’s Portuguese coach Paulo Bento was hoping for.

“We would be hypocrites if we said we prefer playing against Neymar,” said Bento.

“That would be a lie, we prefer him not to play but honestly speaking, I always prefer the best players to play.”

Bento complained about the quick turnaround between the last group stage match on Friday and Monday’s last 16 clash.

Unlike Brazil who rested most of their first choice players having already qualified ater two games, Korea had to fight to the last minute of their 2-1 win over Portugal to make it into the knockouts.

“Ater the physical tiredness from the previous games there is also the emotional fatigue ater the Portugal game,” said Bento.

“I decided to let the players rest yesterday and we only trained this morning.

“Of course that’s a burden for teams. It’s an additional burden compared to Brazil ... who changed the line up for their last game: they did something we couldn’t do in the last game.”

He said he was expecting Brazil to take the game to South Korea but was confident his players could keep them at bay.

“We’re up against world-class players we are not intimidated,” he said. “In our squad we have world-class players.”

“One match it’s not an entire tournament, we have one chance... Most important is we show we are a team that wants to win, wants to compete and fight until the last whistle,” he said.

Ater an extraordinary group phase that saw former winners Brazil and Argentina defeated by low-ranked opponents, plus Belgium and Germany eliminated, South Korea see this World Cup as their best chance in decades to make their mark.

“Every match, every minute is very valuable and precious. The entire team has great morale, great teamwork “said wingback Kim Jin-su.

“We all have truly wanted to get this far and we are all really thirsty for this.”

Kim said there were a few injury concerns among the South Korean squad, but the team were well prepared, capable and confident.

“Of course tomorrow will be a very challenging match. We really want to show everyone what we’ve got and show what we’ve been waiting 12 years for,” Kim said.

“Our fighting spirit will be important and we have to sacrifice ourselves for the team.”

Meanwhile, Tite had harsh criticism for those that accused him of taking an unnecessary risk with Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus, who was injured against Cameroon and will miss the rest of the tournament.

Some local media said that Jesus arrived at the World Cup carrying a knock which Tite knew about when picking him from the start to face the African side on Friday.

Brazil had already qualified for the knockout rounds and lost 1-0.

“I don’t like hearing lies, evil lies from people who want to do bad things to others,” fumed Tite.

“At no time do we play for victory at the risk of a player. The liars, the haters who keep giving hate should go and do something else and stop giving fake news.

“Arsenal have a great medical department, we have a great medical department.

“This never happened and I would never let it happen.”

This will be the first time Brazil and South Korea meet in an official match, with the Brazilians winning six of their seven friendlies, including 5-1 in June. South Korea’s only win came in 1999.

“We can’t think it’s going to be an easy game like it was in that friendly,” Brazil captain Thiago Silva said. “Now it’s the World Cup and they’ve advanced in a very tough group. We have a lot of respect for them.”