Sleepless Tite’s dream will be to sign off in style

BRAZIL

TITE has already announced he will end his six-year reign as coach after the World Cup because he wants to “sleep in peace”.

Before then he has some tough selection decisions to make for the tournament favourites, who topped South American qualifying after going 17 games unbeaten.

He left out Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus from the squad to play Ghana and Tunisia this week, showing his embarrassment of attacking riches.

The team will revolve around Neymar, who had eight goals and eight assists in qualifying. Richarlison scored twice in Friday’s 3-0 win over Ghana, where Tite used the Spurs forward down the middle with Neymar, and Raphinha and Vinicius Junior on the flanks.

Brazil have a solid spine with Alisson in goal and Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Casemiro and Fabinho down the middle.

But the five-time winners have not triumphed since Ronaldo’s 2002 team won in Japan – the only previous time the World Cup was staged in Asia.