Neymar left onlookers in doubt what Brazil’s aim is with his victory sign as the tournament favourites arrived at Sochi International Airport yesterday for the World Cup which kicks-off on Thursday.

Three Lions boss declares home-based training camp a success as he avoids mistakes made in build-up to France ‘98

Gareth Southgate cannot wait to touch down in Russia today and kick on with England’s final World Cup preparations.

Following a home-based camp that could hardly have gone better, the so far injury-free Three Lions will head east for the final phase of training and finetuning.

England’s Group G opener against Tunisia in Volgograd is now just a week away, with anticipation and excitement sure to go up another notch when the team lands in Russia just two days before the World Cup starts.

The Three Lions will make their way from St George’s Park to Birmingham Airport on Tuesday afternoon, when they will fly to St Petersburg and go to their forrestmix Club base in nearby Repino.

“We’re pleased with how preparation has gone up until now,” England manager Southgate said.

“We fly out tomorrow, so it’ll be good to get on with it now. Everybody is looking forward to getting to the first game.”

Southgate was speaking yesterday at St George’s Park, where he waved off referee Martin Atkinson ahead of his charity bike ride to Russia.

The Premier League official aims to raise £60,000 for a variety of charities and be at England’s final group game against Belgium in Kaliningrad on June 28.

“Our journey might get just as hard as theirs as we go along,” said Southgate, whose side face Panama in their other Group G match.

“He’s a nutter, but we knew that anyway. It’s fantastic they are raising money for really good causes. It’s going to be a gruelling adventure but we’re very proud of what they are all doing.”

England continued preparations for their own adventure by holding an internal match at St George’s Park at lunchtime.

The 23 squad members were joined by stand-by midfielder Jake Livermore in a game held on the Sir Bobby Charlton Pitch, where referee Anthony Taylor oversaw proceedings.

Players switched between the teams that wore England’s white and black training tops, allowing Southgate to look at different combinations as all the squad members received some involvement.

Coming on the back of the 2-1 win against Nigeria and 2-0 victory over Costa Rica, Southgate had always planned to then have an internal game away from the public gaze – and overzealous challenges.

“We didn’t want a third game,” the former defender said last month.

“When there’s been a third competitive game, there comes a point when the players are just trying to avoid injury really. You’ve got your minutes.

“We played a behind-closed-doors game in France (at the 1998 World Cup) with Glenn (Hoddle) against local opposition, which I thought worked quite well.

“But a couple of them went flying into tackles and you’re thinking ‘bloody hell’, and you’re just jumping out the way of things.

“So, there’s a balance of how much you think you need physically, and how much mentally the players, do they want another game? Actually at that point I’m not convinced they do.

“And if it’s public you’ve got to hit a level of performance, you’ve got to entertain the supporters, and maybe all the players aren’t ready to go again.

“So we thought, two games on the timeline was good, then a game internally where we’re still working on things but a bit more a physical assessment as well than just a normal training session.”

Danny Welbeck meanwhile spent enough time cooped up through injury that talk of boredom setting in at England’s remote World Cup base is immediately laughed off.

The Three Lions’ team base in Repino, which is around 45 minutes away from the nearest city of St Petersburg, has raised questions about the suitability of the quiet area for players during the tournament.

England’s much-maligned Rustenberg base in 2010 has been mentioned in the same breath, but Southgate gave short shrift to talk of boredom calling it “sad, nonsense and a big red herring”.

Welbeck echoed the England manager’s sentiments ahead of the team heading east, with injury problems of recent years giving him a philosophical outlook.

“For me, nothing like that seems to bother me,” he said.

“I’ve had surgery and then not been allowed to put weight on my leg for two months, so I’ve been stuck in a room and that sort of stuff.

“I don’t get bored now. I’ve been through that, I don’t get bored.

“I know what I can do to occupy myself, occupy my brain.

“If I am on my own, I like my own company (laughs) after that, so I am cool. That sort of stuff won’t really bother me.”

Welbeck’s approach is shaped by the eight-month injury lay-off that saw him miss Euro 2016 and has disrupted his time at Arsenal, where he has had a couple of niggling issues since recovering from that knee complaint.

“Obviously as soon as you have the injury, you’re not in a happy place at all,” the 27-year-old said.

“You know once you’ve had the surgery, you’re going to be out for a certain period of time. It’s frustrating.

“I missed the last Euros and you miss however many months of the Premier League season and that’s the one thing you want to do as a footballer – you want to be playing football on the football pitch and enjoying playing the game that you love.

“When you get an injury, that takes it away from you but there’s things that you can do to try and take it in a positive way however hard it may be.

“With it being an injury, it is so negative, but you try and get the positives out of it, see what you can do to learn from the game.

“You might not be able to play but you still learn mentally and that sort of thing, so I think you’ve just got to try and find that positive.”

Welbeck came off the bench last Thursday to wrap up England’s 2-0 friendly win against Costa Rica and is now looking to help make amends for the World Cup four years ago.

“It makes you hungry, but I don’t think you need the extra motivation going into a World Cup,” the forward, one of the five survivors from the 2014 squad, said.

“I think it’s important not to dwell on the past.”

Picture: Getty Images.

England boss Gareth Southgate.