Brazil vs Chile Prediction - Will The Home Side Be Able To Defeat Chile?

Next Saturday, the hosts Brazil will measure forces with Chile at Estádio Mineirão in the beautiful city of Belo Horizonte on what will be the first match of the World Cup’s Round of 16 stage.

After an unconvincing draw against Mexico last week, Brazil did not experience many difficulties in overcoming a frail and problematic Cameroonian side last Monday. Led by the irreverent talent of Neymar, the home side managed to push the African Lions against the ropes and easily won the match by 4-1. Brazil got the lead by Neymar on the 17’ minute but almost ten minutes later, Joel Matip leveled the score for Cameroon. Nevertheless, the African team’s reaction didn’t last long since ten minutes before the break Neymar netted in his second goal of the night and opened the door for an easy victory for the home team.

Although Scolari constantly tries to deny it, Brazil look increasingly more dependent on Neymar’s skills as the matches go by. On the clash against Mexico, Neymar didn’t have much space to play because of the Central American team’s fierce man-marking system and Brazil looked more predictable while performing their attacking movements.

For the match against Chile, it is not very likely that Scolari will perform plenty of changes in his team despite of the high quality of their opponents. The Brazilian head coach will certainly keep pushing with his atypical 4-2-2-2 style, a slight variation from the classic 4-4-2 approach, with Neymar or Hulk lurking behind the centre forward.

As for Chile, the match against the host team will present a good opportunity for them to take a real stand and to show the World of football how good they really are.

After defeating Australia and the all-powerful Spain, the South American La Roja sucumbed at the hands of Louis Van Gaal’s “new” Clockwork Orange on their last match of the group stage. Ever since Jorge Sampaoli took the helm of the team, Chile’s game evolution has been somehow remarkable. The team has a strong identity now and their entire success relies on the hard work of each individual player. Sampaoli implemented a fairly risky 3-4-3 style into his team, with two versatile inside forwards supported by the all-terrain midfielder Arturo Vidal, instead of the old school centre forward up in the front.

In a recent interview, Arturo Vidal, probably the most influential Chilean footballer currently, expressed his desire of defeating Brazil and looked fairly confident on his and on his teammates’ skills to perform such deed.

Brazil and Chile have played against each other on sixty-eight other occasions so far and the Canarinha won a great majority of those clashes. For that reason and since they are playing home, Brazil are to be considered favourites for the next Saturday’s clash, although, from a team such as Jorge Sampaoli’s Chile, one can expect everything, even defeating the hosts of the tournament at this stage of the competition.

Brazil

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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Chile

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

Brazil (4-2-2-2) - J. César - Dani Alves - David Luiz - Thiago Silva - Marcelo - Luiz Gustavo - Paulinho - Ramires - Neymar - Oscar - Fred

Chile (3-4-3) - Bravo - Jara - Medel  - Isla - Vidal - Díaz - Mena -Aránguiz - Silva - Sánchez - Vargas

Prediction: Brazil 1 Chile 2