Brazil – France 09.06.2013

Brazil play host to France in the final preparation game ahead of the start of the Confederations Cup

, with the Seleccao hoping to record a confidence-boosting victory. Les Bleus arrive in Rio de Janeiro following a 1-0 friendly defeat to Uruguay, as boss Didier Deschamps continue to experiment with his starting eleven.

Many were surprised to see coach Mano Menezes get the boot following the promising display at the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Luiz Felipe Scolari taking over the reigns. The former Chelsea boss didn’t have such a good start to his second stint as Brazil coach, with his side losing to England and sharing spoils with Italy, Russia and Chile, but they have been showing a lot of improvement of late. It is becoming evident the players are slowly adapting to the new coach and it looks as though things are falling into place. The amazing performance in the 2-2 draw with England is enough to suggest team’s form is on the uptrend and no doubt the Seleccao will want to record a morale-boosting victory before the start of the Confederations Cup. With Luiz Felipe Scolari set to field his strongest line-up and team’s key players looking really good at the moment, Brazil do look like hot favourites to win this match.

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While Laurent Blanc’s decision to step down from the post following a hugely disappointing Euro 2012 campaign didn’t surprise anyone, it is fair to say people were shocked to see Didier Deschamps appointed as his successor, with the coach being elected after leading very good Marseille side to a shocking 10th-place finish in the league. As expected, France showed very little in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, while suffering several unexpected defeats in international friendlies, so you will forgive me for not believing they can match mighty Brazil. Didier Deschamps opted to leave a number of star players out of the side for the South American tour, opting to give some youngsters a chance to shine, which is going to further damage team’s chances of getting something from the game.