Rio de Janeiro. Brazil have decided to leave out veteran forward Neymar and Real Madrid youngster Andrique for their upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Uruguay. The Brazilian Football Association gave this information in a statement on Friday. Last month, Neymar returned to the field for his club Al Hilal after almost a year. About a year ago he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Since then he was continuously away from the field. Neymar is Brazil’s all-time top scorer with a world record of 79 goals in 128 international matches. Giving information on his return, Brazil manager Dorival Junior said that it is too early to recall the 32-year-old player for the match against Venezuela on November 14 and the home match against Uruguay just five days later. Dorival said in a press conference that he has fully recovered, but he has only played a few minutes, and that is a big reason.
By the next year, as he gets more time to play, he will fully regain his confidence. Let us tell you that 18-year-old forward Andric had scored three goals in his first five international matches. He played just 26 minutes in Brazil’s October qualifiers against Chile and Peru. Even with Real Madrid, he could clearly be seen struggling in the game. Brazil is currently fourth in the 10-team South American qualifying zone with 16 points from 10 matches. It is six points behind leaders Argentina. The top six teams from this group will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The seventh-placed team will advance to the inter-continental playoffs.
The Brazilian team is as follows:
Goalkeeper: Waverton (Palmeiras), Bento (Al-Nassr), Ederson (Manchester City).
Defender: Danilo (Juventus), Wenderson (Monaco), Abner (Lyon), Guilherme Arana (Atletico Mineiro), Murillo (Nottingham Forest), Eder Militao (Real Madrid), Gabriel Magalhaes (Arsenal), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain).
Midfielder: Andre (Wolverhampton), Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle), Gerson (Flamengo), Lucas Paqueta (West Ham), Andreas Pereira (Fulham), Rafinha (Barcelona).
Forward: Rodrigo (Real Madrid), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), Luiz Henrique (Botafogo), Igor Jesus (Botafogo), Estevao (Palmeras), Savinho (Manchester City).