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Five-time World Cup Champions Brazil and former European football Champions Portugal will be among the main fixtures set for Thursday’s schedule of games at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Brazil, who has arguably one the most potent squads coming into this tournament will start their cup journey against Serbia in the second Group G match of the day.
The South American juggernaut who has the most titles of any nation with five, will be looking for a record sixth hold on the symbol of world football supremacy.
The number 2 ranked Brazil team comes into the game with an impressive record of 15 games unbeaten winning 12 of those games while Serbia comes in with a credible six-game unbeaten record.
Given the depth of Brazil’s squad and the current form of the players such as; Neymar Junior, Anthony, Gabriel Jesus, and Alisson Becker among others, they should start as favorites.
However, as we’ve seen already in this tournament records and statistics quickly become irrelevant on the day.
European heavyweight Portugal will also be favored to kick off their campaign on a winning note when they take the field against African force Ghana in their Group H opener.
It will be the first real test of squad chemistry for the Portuguese team which has had to navigate the very publicized fallout between Captain Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United in recent weeks.
Ronaldo himself has come out to dispel any notion of disharmony among the team and has poured cold water on video clips seemingly showing a bit of tension between himself and a few of the players.
The former Euro champion was a 4-0 victor in their last warm-up game in Qatar and is expected to produce at the very least a similar final result.
Other games on the day will see an expected competitive fixture between former champions Uruguay and South Korea in the first group H game. While the early morning group G fixture will see Switzerland take on another African team Cameroon, in their game.