Pre-tournament favourites Brazil face Switzerland in a World Cup Group G clash on Monday at Stadium 974.

With a resounding win in their opening fixture, Brazil lived up to those expectations placed on them before the finals.

Match preview

© Reuters

Brazil's first opponents, Serbia, were highly fancied to be one of the dark horses at this tournament, but a dominant performance from the Selecao made them look very ordinary.

Complete domination from first whistle till last rewarded Tite's side with a 2-0 success over the Balkan nation, thanks to a Richarlison double in the second half.

After some discussion in both the Brazilian and British press about whether Richarlison justified a start given his mixed start at Tottenham Hotspur, the forward answered his critics and put on the kind of display which led Spurs to spend £60m to prise him from Everton.

His fabulous second goal lit up the Lusail Stadium, the same venue he and Brazil will hope to return to for the final in three weeks' time, and based on their display on Thursday, they have a very good chance of doing so.

That win sealed an eighth successive victory for the five-time World Cup winners, and they remain unbeaten since their defeat in the 2021 Copa America final.

Those eight wins have seen them score 28 goals, and even though they only managed two against Serbia, it should have been a lot more.

Serbia were fortunate Brazil wasted many chances and that Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in goal was on form, as they racked up 24 shots and comfortably kept the Europeans quiet.

Switzerland were much more efficient in their opening day win over Cameroon, getting the job done despite not setting the competition alight.

© Reuters

Yann Sommer was very rarely tested either, and that can be put down to a mixture of Cameroon's lack of quality and the solid foundations of the Swiss side.

New manager, same efficiency, but a different system under Murat Yakin now sees Switzerland play with a back four as opposed to Vladimir Petkovic's preferred system of five-at-the-back.

Yakin will have been delighted with the win and a clean sheet, as it was only the second time in their last 10 fixtures that they have managed to shut out the opposition, but many of those games did come against top quality opposition in the Nations League.

They did concede just once in their final six qualifiers after Euro 2020 when Yakin came in though, so there is no doubting they will make it tough for Brazil, like they did in the last World Cup when they held them to a 1-1 draw.

Thursday's win saw them record a fourth successive victory in competitive fixtures now, a run which has seen them beat Spain and Portugal, so to make it five against Brazil would really make everyone sit up and notice.

It was a poignant moment for Swiss striker Breel Embolo in their opening fixture, as he scored against the country of his birth, showing respect for Cameroon with a very muted celebration on the biggest stage of all.

Team News

© Reuters

The big news coming out of the Brazil camp in the aftermath of the Serbia game is that Neymar will miss the rest of the group stage after suffering an ankle ligament injury in the latter stages of the match.

Considering that the Paris Saint-Germain player is given a free role for his national side, Tite may need to make some tactical adjustments with him missing, so it could give a chance for midfielders like Fred to come in.

Right-back Danilo will also miss the rest of the group stage with a similar injury, potentially opening the door for Dani Alves to appear in a World Cup match for the first time since 2014.

Real Madrid's Eder Militao is probably the more likely man to come in on the right-hand side of defence though.

The change in formation for Switzerland means there is no longer room for Fabian Schar to start as a third centre-back, with the duo of Nico Elvedi and Manuel Akanji preferred over the Newcastle United man.

Denis Zakaria was not even brought off the bench given he has had a difficult year with both Juventus and Chelsea.

There were no major surprises in Yakin's selection overall though, and he is unlikely to change much for this fixture.

Brazil possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Eder Militao, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Fred, Paqueta; Raphinha, Richarlison, Vinicius Junior

Switzerland possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Widmer; Akanji, Elvedi, Rodriguez; Freuler, Xhaka, Sow; Shaqiri, Embolo, Vargas

We say: Brazil 1-0 Switzerland

Switzerland will be pragmatic and are likely to do a better job than Serbia did of playing defensively against all of Brazil's talented attackers.

Much of this Swiss side played in the meeting of the two countries at Russia 2018, but Brazil look more formidable this time around and should edge it.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Andrew Delaney

Previews by email