Neymar expected to play for rested Brazil against South Korea

Welcome back, at just the right time at the World Cup.

Neymar seemed healthy in training before Monday’s game against South Korea in the Round of 16. The forward missed the final two matches of the group stage after injuring his right ankle in the opening game win over Serbia.

Brazil easily moved into the next round without Neymar. No longer bothered by his ankle, Neymar was expected to start — and not come off the bench as a precautionary measure — if he plays against South Korea.

“I prefer to use my best player from the start,” Brazil coach Tite said. “It’s the coach who has to make that decision and take on that responsibility.”

In footage released by the Brazilian soccer federation, he appeared to be in good condition, doing drills with the ball and taking shots on goal without signs of his injury.

“Obviously, we won’t say that it’s better to face Brazil when Neymar is playing, but I always prefer when the best players are there,” South Korea coach Paulo Bento said.

Bento hasn’t been pleased with the three-day rest period between games from the group stage to the knockout round. Brazil advanced with a game to spare and was able to rest the team’s stars in its final match, but South Korea had to claw its way into the knockout round with a win over Portugal.

“It’s not fair,” Bento said. “I think that it has to do with the new FIFA reality, which is to create worse conditions for the lessfavored teams and probably better conditions for the more-favored ones.”

Even after the surprise win over Portugal, South Korea had to wait for over nine agonizing minutes of extra time for a game across Qatar to end. The outcome of Uruguay against Ghana determined if the South Korean’s advanced into the round of

16.

When Uruguay failed to score the goals it needed to best South Korea for the final spot in Group H, the South Korean players who had formed a circle on the field to watch the game on phones erupted into joyous celebration.

South Korea is now trying to advance past the Round of 16 for the first time since the Asian team’s historic run as a co-host in 2002, when it reached the semifinals and finished fourth.

JAPAN-CROATIA

Japan and Croatia meet for the first time in the knockout round of the World Cup after the teams squared off two previous times in group play. Croatia won in 1998 and the teams finished with a goalless draw eight years later.

This time, Japan won Group E after come-frombehind 2-1 victories over Germany and Spain and is in the knockout round for back-to-back tournaments for the first time in team history.

At stake for Japan is its first trip to the quarterfinals in four tries.

“Japan is a team that doesn’t quit,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić said. “They conceded goals at the beginning of the match both against Germany and Spain, but they came back. They had a lot of faith in themselves, and that is a great virtue of the Japan national team.”

Croatia, the runner-up to France in the 2018 World Cup, is making its third appearance in the knockout round. Croatia beat Romania in 1998 to advance to the semifinals and defeated Denmark 3-2 on penalties in 2018 en route to the final game — a 4-2 loss to reigning World Cup champion France.