World Cup: Mexico unlikely to be overawed against Brazil

SAO PAULO - World Cup favorites Brazil will be expected to defeat Mexico in the second round of Group A matches in Fortaleza on Tuesday (Wednesday, PHL time) but their Latin neighbors have no reason to feel overawed.

The Mexicans have won big matches against Brazil before, beating them 4-3 in the final of the Confederations Cup in 1999 and more recently in the Olympic final in London.

Although that game was not a full international, the match featured several players expected to line up in Fortaleza including Neymar, Oscar and Thiago Silva for Brazil, and Oribe Peralta, the striker whose brace gave Mexico a 2-1 victory.

It gives Brazil pause for thought as they seek their 11th consecutive win.

"We know that Mexico are a good team, they always give Brazil a hard time and it won't be any different when we play in the next match," Oscar, one of the stars of the 3-1 opening day win over Croatia, said at the team's base camp on Saturday (Sunday, PHL time).

"Mexico are good coming forward and they are very fast on the counter attack," the Chelsea midfielder said. "The training we are going to do this week ahead of the Mexico game will be different from the training we did before facing Croatia. Mexico play totally differently from Croatia."

Mexico will also be encouraged by a rain-sodden 1-0 win over Cameroon on Friday (Saturday, PHL time) when they received fantastic support from their traveling fans.

The home side, however, have won 22 of the 38 previous encounters including the most recent match almost exactly a year ago in the same stadium in the Confederations Cup when Brazil romped home more comfortably than the 2-0 scoreline suggests.

Both teams - and fans the world over - will also be watching the referee almost as closely as the players.

Brazil were given a contentious penalty at a crucial moment of the Croatia match, prompting talk about home field bias. And TV replays showed Mexico had two good goals disallowed before they finally got the winner in their opener against Cameroon. - Reuters


FACTBOX: Brazil v Mexico

Where: The Castelao arena
Capacity: 60,348
When: Tuesday June 17, 1600 local (Wednesday, 3pm, PHL time)
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir

Key stats:
- The two sides met the last time the World Cup was held in Brazil, 64 years ago. Brazil beat Mexico 4-0 in the opening match of the 1950 tournament.
- The last encounter between the teams took place a year ago in the same stadium, when Brazil beat Mexico 2-0 in the Confederations Cup.
- Mexico have only beaten South American opponents once in the World Cup, in 2002, when they overcame Ecuador 2-1 in the group stages.
- Brazil has won its last 10 matches dating back to last September.

Previous meetings: The teams have played 38 times, with Brazil winning 22, Mexico 10 and six draws.

Last meeting: June 19, 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil (Confederations Cup) - Brazil 2 Mexico 0