French legend and former Les Blues playmaker Michel Platini has backed Brazil, Spain and England to shine at this summers’ World Cup finals in South Africa – omitted his country of birth France. Brazil have impressed many with their European style layout of 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders, however many purists and Brazilian fans have grown tired of Dunga’s pragmatic approach. These fans shouldn’t forget that Brazil are indeed Copa America winners whilst Spain hold the continental crown in Europe. That leaves England, the eternal underachievers, but this time they have Wayne Rooney.
Brazil’s last great flair side was arguably the 1982 side that lost 3-2 to eventual champions Italy. Of course Brazil have produced world class, skillful players over the years, however long gone are the days of Gerson and Falcao where footballers could be ‘let play’. Rigid tactical shifts towards a singular forward and a counter attacking mentality means that the free flowing galloping Brazilians aren’t as regular an occurrence nowadays. Despite this, Platini believes they are one of three teams who can win the tournament.
“I see three teams who have the quality to win it - in alphabetical order, Brazil, England and Spain,” said the Frenchman. He went onto add that “other teams may be hard to beat but they may not have the potential in absolute terms to win the World Cup.” Spain have never tasted World Cup glory, however England won the tournament nearly 44 years ago on home soil, when they beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley. Both Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres, 26 goals and 18 goals respectively, are key to both their club and countries success and it will be vital that they are fit and hungry this summer.
