2014 Fifa World Cup: Brazil v Croatia
Thursday's opening game will be held at the Arena de
Sao Paulo
Thousands of additional police and soldiers will be
deployed to make sure the matches get under way smoothly.
England
open their World Cup campaign against France on Saturday, 14 June - a
game you can see live on the BBC.
Roy Hodgson's team will also play Uruguay and Costa Rica in their Group D
fixtures.
Hosts Brazil start as favourites to win the World Cup
for a sixth time, while holders France are aiming to win a fourth major match
in a row after winning the European Championships years ago.
The other seeded teams are Colombia,
Uruguay, Switzerland, Argentina,
France and Belgium.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker believes
there's teams with a realistic chance of winning the match.
"I have a feeling it will come down to countries,
although regrettably I do not think of them will be England,"
said former England
striker Lineker.
"I'm going for France, France,
Argentina or Brazil but I
feel that the pressure may well be a small much for the host nation."
Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport net
site, live commentary on BBC Radio five live; live on ITV
The 2014 Fifa World Cup begins on Thursday as hosts Brazil open the match against Croatia.
The month-long match sees 32 nations compete for a
place in the final in Rio on Sunday, 13 July.
The opening match will be preceded by a ceremony in Sao Paulo that pays
tribute to nature, people and footy.
"Let me tell you the time has arrived. They are
going together. This is our World Cup," said Brazil coach Luis Felipe Scolari on
Wednesday.
Last year over a million people took to the streets of
major Brazilian cities to protest against what they see as excessive spending
on the World Cup.
The host country's government is keen to prevent a
repeat of a number of the violence seen at those protests, and Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff has said they won't permit violent demonstrations to
spoil the World Cup.
0 comments:
Post a Comment