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Stern Tunisia test for Brazil tonight

Brazil take on Tunisia in an international friendly at the Parc des Princes in France, tonight.

Both nations have qualified for the winter World Cup in Qatar, with this match representing their final match to prepare for the tournament.

Brazil, who are billed as the favourites to win their first World Cup for two decades, ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against Ghana in Le Havre on Friday evening.

Marquinhos got his side off to a flier with his fifth international goal coming in only the ninth minute, while a brace from Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison essentially ended the match as a contest before the half-time whistle had even been blown.

Unsurprisingly, Tite took the opportunity to make six changes after the break, with the match petering out as a result. The 61-year-old may perversely hope to be pushed for longer periods by Tunisia in Paris today.

That said, he will not want to see his team’s six match winning streak come to an end ahead of November’s opener against Serbia in Group G of the World Cup.

Tunisia, meanwhile, qualified for their second successive World Cup by beating Mali 1-0 on aggregate in March’s final play-off round.

Having missed out on the global stage in 2010 and 2014, the Eagles of Carthage appear to have worked their way back to being one of Africa’s most solid outfits, having reached the quarter-finals or better in each of the last four African Cup of Nations.

Indeed, under Jalel Kadri – who was appointed as the nation’s permanent manager after their run to the last eight in January – they are on an astonishing run of seven successive clean sheets, with Sierra Leone’s Dango Ouattara the last player to score against them in the AFCON quarter-finals in January.

As such, Kadri will have confidence that his side can make Brazil work extremely hard to score against them on Tuesday, but he will be acutely aware that coming up against A Selecao is one of the hardest tests any international side can face.

Tite picked an incredibly attacking line-up against Ghana on Friday, with only Casemiro sitting in front of the back four, allowing Lucas Paqueta, Neymar, Raphinha, Vinicius Junior and Richarlison to attack.

With this match representing Brazil’s last match before facing Serbia at the World Cup, the former Corinthians boss is unlikely to make many changes, but he may rest Casemiro given his lack of game time for Manchester United lately. – SportsMole

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