Neymar boost for Brazil ahead of vital showdown

– Neymar will play in Brazil’s vital World Cup match against Costa Rica today despite injury fears, coach Tite has confirmed.

The world’s most expensive player was given a rough ride by the Swiss in a 1-1 draw on Sunday, suffering 10 fouls during the match, the most for any player in a single World Cup game for 20 years.

Neymar then set alarm bells ringing when he hobbled out of training on Tuesday.

But he returned to training on Wednesday and Tite insisted he is not running a risk by throwing Neymar straight back into the action.

“It’s the same team that is going to start that stated against Switzerland,” said Tite.

“We want to win, it’s a World Cup, but the coach is not going to play with the players’ health. It’s too big a risk.”

Even before his latest injury scare, there were doubts over Ney-

Nigeria take on Iceland today, seeking to salvage their faltering World Cup campaign but wary of the Nordic team’s ability to go toe-to-toe with supposed superior sides.

Coach Gernot Rohr’s Super Eagles – who brought the youngest squad to Russia – with an average age of around 25 – have now won just one of their past 13 games at World Cups.

Nigeria reached the knockout phase at the 2014 World Cup, but slipped to a 2-0 defeat in their Group D opener against Croatia mar’s match fitness after a broken bone in his foot ended his club season with Paris Saint-Germain in February.

Neymar returned and scored in World Cup warm-up friendly wins against Croatia and Austria, but Tite admitted it could take up to five games for his star forward to be back to his best.

“He had a knock, but I think it was the first time in three and a half months he played 90 minutes,” said Tite. “We are calm. Five matches is the minimum you need to be fully fit and he has already sped up the process.”

In their desperation for a breakthrough in the final stages against the Swiss, Brazil consistently looked to Neymar to provide the final finish or pass without success. Neymar was criticised for being self-indulgent, often taking too many touches

But Tite strongly refuted reports he has asked Neymar to play more in the team’s best interests. – AFP in Kaliningrad.

Their side, including 19-yearold goalkeeper Francis Uzoho (pictured), were unrecognisable from the team beaten by France in the last-16 four years ago.

“Sometimes we were a little bit naive on set pieces but we will work on it,” said Rohr.

Iceland are buoyant after what their coach Heimir Hallgrimsson described as a “schoolbook example” of how to defend against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

Messi complained that “Iceland didn’t want to play” but the Nordic minnows, playing in their first-ever World Cup, were unimpressed by the criticism.

“Maybe he would have been happier if we had played attacking football and lost 5-0. People can have their opinion about it but we really don’t care,” said goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson. – AFP

Iceland’s players will be allowed to have sex ahead of their match against Nigeria, as long as it’s with their wives, coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said yesterday.

Iceland’s players reunited with their families yesterday in Volgograd where they take on Nigeria today.