“If we don’t respect our best players, they might not want to be with us anymore”, Micale said. “He is young. I know that at times he behaves in a way that we may not like, but at his age, wouldn’t we do the same things that he does?” For Brazil to confirm qualification, a win over Denmark is absolutely essential, if they have to avoid a second upset-exit from a major tournament at home after their 7-1 loss against Germany at the World cup finals.
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Group A still looks like it is headed for a close finish as Denmark is the only team who could notch up a win and is at the top with four points followed by Brazil and Iraq on 2 points.
Of all the Brazilian players, Neymar probably had the most torrid time. After Sunday’s draw against Iraq, he declined to talk to the media, leaving the younger players to try to explain the team’s struggles.
Twitter was awash with the hashtage “Neymar out, Marta in”, and a picture of a boy wearing a Brazil shirt with Neymar’s name scrubbed out and Marta written in pen underneath went viral. “Marta!”. This is in reference to the star striker of the Brazil women’s team, who are unbeaten so far at Rio 2016.
AS Roma forward Sadiq Umar scored a first-half victor for the African champions, who won gold and silver at Atlanta ’96 and Beijing ’08 respectively, to help them scale through after winning their first two group games at the event.
But it was pretty much the same old story as Neymar and his compatriots buzzed around their rivals’ penalty box without truly testing 23-year-old Mohammed Hameed in the Iraqi goal. News stories displayed here appear in our category for General and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
“I have no doubt that the fans will be with us.at a moment as hard as this and that their support will make all the difference”, said Brazil midfielder Renato Augusto. “Everyone is supporting him”.
“We always have to reflect and even more so when we don’t get the desired result”, Micale said.
It is their second goalless draw of the tournament after another blank against South Africa on Thursday.
“We need to apologise to the fans, to the people”.
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It’s not the first time Brazil fans have drawn a comparison between the two footballing legends this summer. Germany are third in the table on two points. If the teams remain level on points, goal differential and head-to-head results, a drawing of lots will determine which nation advances.
