Danilo (R) started against Switzerland in Brazil's opening game at the World Cup
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TEAM NEWS
Manchester City full-back Danilo will miss Brazil's Group E tie with Costa Rica on Friday after sustaining a thigh strain during training.
The 26-year-old will be replaced by Corinthians right-back Fagner.
Meanwhile, Neymar is expected to start despite hobbling out of a training session on Tuesday.
The Paris St-Germain forward, who broke a bone in his right foot in February, felt pain in his right ankle but took part in another session on Wednesday.
Costa Rica will look to emulate Switzerland's efforts against Tite's side, who had to settle for a point.
Los Ticos now face an uphill task to progress after losing 1-0 to Serbia.
OVERVIEW
Brazil began the World Cup as one of the favourites, but opened up in underwhelming fashion by drawing with Switzerland, despite going ahead through Philippe Coutinho's wonderful, curling effort.
However, the five-time champions, appearing in their 21st consecutive tournament, will not worry about qualifying for the knockout phase just yet.
Unbeaten in their last 13 World Cup group games, winning 10 and drawing three, Brazil have topped their first-round group in every World Cup since 1982 and last failed to progress past this stage in 1966.
While Costa Rica will not have given up on progressing to the knockout stages for a second consecutive finals, manager Oscar Ramirez will need to retune his team offensively.
Penalty shootouts excluded, Costa Rica were one of only three sides to remain unbeaten in the 2014 World Cup but have toiled in front of goal at the finals, scoring just once in their last four World Cup games.
They sprung a surprise by progressing in a group consisting of Uruguay, Italy and England four years ago - but have it all to do now in Russia.
VIEW FROM BOTH CAMPS
Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho: "We said after the last game we need to improve. All games are like a final, even more so in the World Cup. We need to take responsibility and our heads have to be in the right place. This game is important and we're looking for three points.
"We spoke about the possibilities and the ways to qualify and points, we had a meeting about that but we take to the field aiming to win."
Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz: "Switzerland pressed them in midfield and that's what you need to do because everybody knows that Brazil are best from midfield going forward.
"We need to win the ball back quickly and counter-attack quickly."
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
Brazil have won nine of their 10 previous internationals against Costa Rica, losing only in a friendly in March 1960.
This is the third meeting between Brazil and Costa Rica at the World Cup, with the former inflicting Costa Rica's first-ever defeat on them at the tournament in 1990 (1-0), before a 5-2 victory in 2002
Brazil
Philippe Coutinho's goal against Switzerland was his 11th for Brazil - five of those have come from outside the box.
Brazil are winless in three World Cup matches (D1 L2), their worst run since June 1978, when they went four matches without a win.
Brazil conceded from the first shot on target they faced at the 2018 World Cup - from their last 13 shots on target faced at the World Cup, they have conceded 10 goals.
Brazil's Neymar was fouled 10 times in their opening match against Switzerland - it was the most a player has been fouled in a World Cup match since 1998, when England striker Alan Shearer was fouled 11 times against Tunisia.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica's only previous World Cup victory against South American opposition came in the 2014 tournament (3-1 vs Uruguay).
Costa Rica lost their first match against Serbia, ending a five-game unbeaten run at the World Cup finals - they haven't lost back-to-back World Cup games since June 2006, when they lost four in a row.
Against Serbia, striker Marco Urena had just 14 touches in 67 minutes for Costa Rica, with three of those in the opposition box - his replacement, Joel Campbell, had 24 touches and four in the opposition box.
Costa Rica have scored from just one of their last 31 shots at the World Cup.
MOST RECENT MEETING
Brazil 1-0 Costa Rica (5 September 2015)
'Brazil 84% chance of progressing'
Football statisticians Gracenote Sports believe Brazil have a 84% chance of progressing through the group.
Gracenote Sports head of analysis, Simon Gleave, said: "An opening match draw against the second-best team in the group is never a disaster so Brazil's 1-1 draw with Switzerland still leaves the Brazilians with an 84% chance of reaching the last 16. That makes Brazil the sixth likeliest team in the last 16 after the opening matches. Brazil do need to record a victory against Costa Rica, though, to stop their chance declining still further."
TRIBUNJATENG.COM, SEMARANG - Brazil akan menghadapi Kosta Rika dalam laga kedua kualifikasi Grup E Piala Dunia 2018.
Pertandingan akan berlangsung di Saint-Petersburg Stadium, pada Jumat (22/6/2018) pukul 19.00 WIB.
Pada pertandingan pertama kualifikasi Grup E Piala Dunia 2018, Brazil ditahan imbang oleh Swiss dengan skor 1-1.
Melawan Kosta Rika, Brazil diprediksi akan meraih kemenangan.
Sementara sang rival, Kosta Rika juga tak mau angkat koper lebih awal, dan tentunya berambisi menyamai torehan di turnamen tahun 2014.
Berikut jadwal siaran langsung sepak bola yang dirangkum Tribunjateng.com :
Of all the qualities Tite has displayed since he became the coach of Brazil, diplomacy has often been to the fore. After his appointment he insisted it was he who must adapt his style to the players and not the other way around. More recently he expressed sympathy for the pain he caused those players who missed the World Cup. After arriving in Russia, he spoke of the expectation his team were under and warned: “We can’t always control the result.”
Tite was wise to be circumspect. The man who, just last week, was swatting away questions on how it felt to be universally liked in his football crazy country no longer has to worry about that. A frustrating draw against Switzerland on Sunday evening has cracked Group E open. With an impressive Serbia still to come, Brazil must beat Costa Rica in St Petersburg on Friday. But that is not their only problem. You might argue it is not even their most important.
It is time for Neymar to start playing for the team, not himself | Marcel Desailly Read more
First in the queue for attention, as ever, is Neymar. The blond forward has been the subject of his own little soap opera this week after limping away from team training on Tuesday. This, the Brazilian FA said, was an injury unrelated to the broken metatarsal that kept him out of the Paris Saint-Germain side for three months and limited his World Cup preparation. It was, it said, a sore ankle, the result of being persistently hacked at by the Swiss (Neymar drew 10 fouls against him on Sunday, the most in any World Cup game since Alan Shearer against Tunisia in 1998).
In his pre-match press conference, Tite chose not to grind that particular axe. He confirmed that Neymar would play against Costa Rica in an unchanged side. He also insisted he was not taking a risk with the team’s talisman. Asked whether Neymar would be playing were the match not so important, Tite said: “Yes, yes. He would be playing. It’s not a sacrifice. We want to win, it’s a World Cup, but the coach is not going to risk a player’s health by being dishonest to him. That’s a price that’s too high to pay. Those values of health and honesty, no way, there’s no compromise.”
It was an assertive, some might say dramatic, response and Tite adopted a similar tone when addressing the other issue dogging Neymar this week, his performance. Alongside the fouls, Neymar generated another striking statistic in the Switzerland game as he surrendered possession a total of seven times. Brazil’s play was consistently funnelled to his feet but often came to an end there. Reports after the match had suggested Tite pulled Neymar aside and instructed him to play more for the team. This claim has been vociferously denied by the coach.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Neymar will start against Costa Rica despite a minor injury scare this week. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters
“Absolutely not. The information you got is not true, it’s not true. It didn’t happen,” he said, but he also used the moment to reiterate the importance of team play. “All the players have the responsibility of playing for the collective and also being individuals, some with some specific characteristics.
“Neymar, I’m not going to take away from him this initiative in the last third of the pitch. He’s a genius. You have my word, this is not true. We all have to work as a team, but we have to respect the characteristics. In the last third of the pitch, you have to create possibilities for the finish. I’m not going to take that away from anybody.”
A player whose status sometimes threatens to eclipse that of the entire team (as it does with his club side), is not Brazil’s only problem, however. The Brazilian FA made an official complaint to Fifa after the Switzerland match over the failure of VAR to review certain decisions, including the buildup to the Swiss equaliser.
When Costa Rica lowered the colours of Brazil and then some Read more
On Wednesday it conceded this complaint had been rejected. The squad have also been having to adjust to the white nights of St Petersburg, where the sun never truly sets. Thiago Silva, who will be captain against Costa Rica as part of the coach’s policy of rotating the job, spoke of the measures the squad have had to take to get some sleep. “Yesterday we stayed up a little late, having some physiotherapy at 1.30 in the morning,” Silva said. “[We were told] to turn off our cell phones, so that we could sleep.”
Drama is never too far away from any Brazil side, of course, and any anxieties would be calmed substantially with three points on Friday. But the noises coming from within the camp this week do not sound like a team entirely at ease with themselves and the same could also be said of their performance against the Swiss. Four years on from the Mineirazo, the talk before this World Cup was of a squad determined to put behind them the national humiliation of the loss to Germany. It was always a challenge to imagine those deep wounds had healed entirely, but they may be closer to the surface than we thought.
Four years after they held his shirt up during the anthems in the 7-1 defeat to Germany, Brazil still feel like the Neymar Show, with the manager forced to deny he has told the team’s global star to be less selfish against Costa Rica in game two.
“It’s a lie,” declared Adenor Bacchi, better known as Tite, at the Saint Petersburg Stadium where Brazil will endeavour to improve on their 1-1 draw with Switzerland. In a media conference dominated by the world’s most expensive player, Tite was interrogated about suggestions back in Brazil that Neymar played his own private game against the Swiss and was asked to change his ways against Costa Rica.
“I don’t like to personalise it, but absolutely not,” Tite told a Brazilian reporter. “The information you have is not true, not to say - it’s a lie, that didn’t happen. All the players have the responsibility of playing for the collective but also being an individual. I’m not going to take away from him his ingenuity in the final third of the field - his genius. You have my word - this is not true.
“The last third of the pitch - you have to go there, you have to create. I’m not going to take that away from anyone. The full-back [in you own team]? Yes, you have to keep an eye on him. But you have to create.”
