Brazil take heart from battling Confed Cup win

Brazil insist their hard-fought Confederations Cup semi-final win over an experienced Uruguay squad has helped the team mature and gain more confidence for next year’s World Cup, also being staged on home soil.

Brazil struggled to beat La Celeste 2-1 on Wednesday, but coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and his players say there are a lot of positives to take from the match.

Accentuating how important this tournament is in terms of their World Cup preparation, Scolari said: “This is what we’re doing at this competition, we are growing.”

Goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who saved a penalty from Uruguay’s Diego Forlan when the match was scoreless, said: “The victory is going to play an important 
role in making the team more mature in the future. It was a semi-final in an important competition, against a rival with a very good team, so we have to take a lot of positives out of it.”

“The whole team is improving and this is something we can do when we play against teams like Uruguay and Italy,” added Scolari. “When you play against Uruguay it’s a different sort of match. There’s a lot of rivalry 
between the two teams and we get a little bit nervous.

“We have to go through this, through all these situations so we can grow up and evolve and reach the most 
important competition for us, which is the World Cup, in 
better shape.”