Neymar’s Brazil will not be appearing in Rio de Janeiro in any of their Olympic football group matches at the city’s own Games in August.
Brazil have never won Olympic gold and football, usually a sideshow at the Games, will be massive mainstream this time around.
The draw, at Maracana, placed the hosts in first round Group A along with South Africa, Iraq and Denmark and they will be favourites to top the mini league and progress to the knockout stage via Brasilia again and Salvador.
Finishing No1 would mean a quarter-final flight down to the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo and a clash with the runners-up from a Group B which features European under-21 champions Sweden, Colombia, Nigeria and Japan.
Finally then, in the semi-finals, would Brazil finally come to Rio itself . . . with the holy grail beckoning, again at Maracana, in the gold medal final on August 20.
Only if Brazil lose in the semi-finals could they return, for the bronze medal match, to Belo Horizonte, scene of their World Cup humiliation in 2014.
Germany, seeking to emulate their seniors’ triumph in Brazil at the World Cup two years ago, are in Group C in a tournament swansong for their veteran coach, Horst Hrubesch. Seeking to spoil the occasions for him will be Fiji, South Korea and Olympic champions Mexico.
Four years ago El Tri defeated Brazil, surprisingly, by 2-1 in the Olympic final at Wembley.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire