Brazil face Egypt in their final World Cup tune-up without the injured Neymar

Brazil get one last run-out before the World Cup when they meet Egypt at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland on Saturday. It is the final piece of Carlo Ancelotti’s preparation, and it comes with a worry attached, because the man Brazil would most like on the pitch will be watching from the sidelines.

Neymar against the clock

Neymar misses out with a calf problem and is now in a race to be fit for Brazil’s opening game. Brazil’s all-time leading scorer was always going to be central to how Ancelotti set his side up, and losing him for the final warm-up is not how anyone wanted to head into the tournament. The realistic hope now is that he is available for the Group C opener against Morocco on June 13 rather than this friendly, which leaves the medical staff managing his return carefully over the next week.

His absence does at least hand someone else a chance to stake a claim in the forward line, and there is no shortage of attacking talent for Ancelotti to turn to.

Ancelotti keeps experimenting

Brazil come into this off the back of a 6-2 win over Panama, a game in which Ancelotti rotated heavily and effectively fielded two different teams across the 90 minutes. Do not be surprised if he does something similar here, using both halves to look at combinations and give as many players as possible a final taste of match rhythm before the squad is locked in.

The good news is that Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães and Gabriel Martinelli have all trained this week and are back in contention after sitting out the Panama game, which gives the manager close to a full deck to choose from. Raphinha and Vinícius Júnior remain the ones opposition defences will fear most.

Egypt are no warm-up fodder

Egypt will not be turning up just to make up the numbers. They have qualified for the World Cup in their own right, they have Mohamed Salah to call on, and they arrived at this fixture on the back of a 1-0 win over Russia. A side drawn alongside Belgium at the tournament will see this as a genuine test of where they stand against elite opposition, and they will want to make Brazil work for it.

For Brazil, the result matters less than the rhythm. Ancelotti wants his big names ticking over, his fringe players sharp, and ideally Neymar back on the grass before June 13. A clean, controlled evening in Cleveland would do nicely before the serious business begins.

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