Brazil will host Panama at the Serra Dourada stadium in Goiania on Tuesday, June 3 (12:00 PM Pacific, 7:00 PM GMT), in a pre-World Cup friendly match. Brazil, as the World Cup host and one of the most important teams in history, is undoubtedly the main candidate to win the 2014 World Cup.
They won the Confederations Cup last year, after defeating Japan, Mexico, Italy, Uruguay and Spain, and they won their last seven friendly matches, against Australia, Portugal, South Korea, Zambia, Honduras, Chile and South Africa. Their last defeat was against Switzerland, 0-1 in Basel in August 2013.
With the 23-player list already confirmed, the friendly matches against Panama and Serbia (on June 6 in Sao Paulo) will help the manager Luiz Felipe Scolari to evaluate the form of his players in a real match and to define the lineup for the first World Cup match against Croatia on June 12. In the group stage they’ll also have to face Mexico and Cameroon.
For the match against Panama, Felipao won’t take any risks and every player that is not a hundred percent physically will not play.
In fact, midfielders Paulinho (Tottenham Hotspur) and Fernandinho (Manchester City), as well as skipper Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain) didn’t travel to Goiania – they stayed in the training center in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janeiro. However, if they get fit they may play against Serbia on Friday, as Felipao said to the press: “We’re not worried about anybody, this is just prevention.”
On the other hand, Panama did not qualify for the World Cup. They were really close to a play-off match, but a 2-3 defeat against United States in the last match, with two USA goals in the last minutes, left them empty-handed and allowed Mexico to go to Brazil.
They have a new manager, the Colombian Hernán “Bolillo” Gómez, who trained the Colombia national team three times, the Ecuador and Guatemala national teams, as well as Atlético Nacional, Santa Fe and Independiente Medellín; three first-division teams in Colombia.
Gomez’s first match as Panama coach was a 1-1 tie against Serbia last Saturday in Chicago. The manager was satisfied with the performance of his team, as he said: “It’s an important result because of the strong opponent we were facing. There were important moments against a difficult rival.”
After playing against Brazil, the Panama national team will go to Lima to play against Peru– another team that is out of the World Cup – next Friday.
Probable lineups
Brazil (4-3-3): Julio César; Daniel Alves, David Luiz, Dante, Marcelo; Luiz Gustavo, Hernanes, Oscar; Hulk, Neymar, Fred.
Panama (4-4-2): Oscar McFarlane; Román Torres, Carlos Rodríguez, Leonel Parrish, Roberto Chen; Armando Cooper, Gabriel Gómez, Amílcar Henríquez, Alberto Quintero; Nelson Barahona, Nicolás Muñoz.
Brazil vs Panama Prediction
There is no comparison between both teams, and Brazil will comfortably defeat Panama. In the last couple of days there were several important football teams that did not win their friendly matches, such as Germany or Italy, but in my opinion those teams played The same will not be with Brazil as they want to win even the friendly matches because they play at home and they have to bring confidence to their supporters. My prediction is a 4-0 victory for Brazil.
Brazil vs Panama TV Schedule
The Brazil vs Panama match will be televised on beIN Sports at 12:00 PM Pacific.
