Brazil will look to bounce back from their upset defeat to Cameroon as they take on South Korea in the Round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup.
Brazil’s focus will be on their Round of 16 tie, but their attention will also be preoccupied by the health of their all-time highest goal scorer Pele, who was rushed to hospital in Sao Paulo last week. Coach Tite used his press conference before the Cameroon defeat to wish Pele a speedy recovery.
In terms of their game against South Korea, Brazil can be positive despite Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus returning home injured, their star-man and current number 10 Neymar is expected to return back from his ankle injury. Neymar’s injury kept him out of their last two group matches against Switzerland and Serbia.
His fellow countryman Richarlison expressed high praise for Neymar’s return: “I hope he comes back. Everyone saw how much we missed him in the last two games. I think him coming back will make me better.”
For South Korea, they will be aware that they are the underdogs for this fixture, but their confidence from their late 2-1 victory against Portugal, thanks to Hwang-Hee Chan’s 91st minute strike, could play a big part.
South Korea’s star player Heung-min Son has explained their ambitions of the competition: “We’ve always talked about reaching the round of 16 as our objective but we should now try to go beyond that,”. The winner of the tie will play Croatia in the quarter-finals after they just defeated Japan in the first penalty-shootout of the competition.
