FIFA ranking: 1

How they qualified: CONMEBOL qualifying winners

2018 World Cup performance: Quarter-finals

Previous World Cup appearances: 21

Best result: Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)

 

Background

Brazil are the bookies’ favourites to go all the way at this winter’s World Cup and it is not difficult to see why. Brazil are currently the only nation to have appeared in all 21 previous World Cup tournaments and are heading into the 2022 edition in perhaps the best mood since the 2014 World Cup on home soil. They not only managed to qualify as CONMEBOL qualifying winners in style – unbeaten while scoring 40 goals and conceding five – but their squad is packed full of attacking flair that will cause coach Tite selection headaches. Previous Brazil teams perhaps relied heavily on their attack, and while this Brazil team is well-stocked upfront, they are now also well-balanced defensively, conceding in only four of their 17 qualifying matches. If the Seleção can replicate that sort of form on the world stage, Brazil will likely be lifting their first World Cup trophy in 20 years.

 

The Coach – Tite

Tite’s managerial career spans over 30 years and 14 different teams. His career has primarily been spent in his native Brazil, with smaller teams such as Caxias and Veranópolis, but the Brazilian eventually climbed the managerial ladder to take charge of Brazilian heavyweight Palmeiras, Internacional, and Corinthians, before taking charge of the national team in 2016.

Tite was appointed coach of the Seleção in the summer of 2016 after his predecessor Dunga struggled to lead the nation out of that year’s Copa America group stage. Since Tite’s appointment, Brazil managed to comfortably qualify for the 2018 World Cup, in which they rather disappointingly bowed out in the quarter-finals against Belgium, and win the 2019 Copa America, as well as reach the final in 2021. This will be the 61-year-old’s sixth year at the helm of the national team and most likely his last, as his contract only runs until the end of the 2022 World Cup, with sources claiming he is finally ready for a challenge in European football.

 

Key Player – Neymar

Neymar might not be perhaps as crucial to Brazil as in previous years, mostly due to the attacking options available to Brazil, but he is still Brazil’s poster boy. At 30, the man himself admitted this will likely be his last World Cup and today he is a much more mature leader of the team than his showboating skills suggest. In the current system, Neymar is perhaps more of a midfielder than a forward, and due to this, he is much more influential for the team as he is able to link midfield with attack. Neymar is currently sitting only two goals shy of Pelé’s all-time goal-scoring record for Brazil and he will surely want to end his final World Cup not only as Brazil’s all-time top scorer but also as a World Champion.

 

Predicted Line-up

 

 

World Cup Chances

Brazil are currently the best team in the world on paper, which is backed by the bookies suggesting Brazil will win the 2022 World Cup. Of course, football is not played on paper, but it is difficult to argue against Brazil being the team best prepared to win the tournament in Qatar. They have a squad packed full of quality, starting from the goalkeeper position where they have not one but two world-class goalkeepers in Alisson and Ederson, a defence that is a perfect combination of experience and youth in Thiago Silva and Militao, a midfield including hardman Casemiro and the more creative Paqueta, and of course an attack featuring Neymar, Vinicius Jr and Richarlison. They have been drawn in a relatively easy group including Serbia, Switzerland, and Cameroon, and if the Brazil squad can finally come together and stay clear of any major injuries, it is likely Brazil will be lifting their sixth crown in Qatar.