BELO HORIZONTE // Brazil are without their most influential player, but they are not without belief going into Tuesday's World Cup semi-final with Germany.
Such is the significance surrounding Neymar’s fractured vertebra, the striker’s injury has led the Brazilian news for the past three days – the agenda evolving from news reporting, to calling for retrospective punishment, to hoping he could return for a potential final, to eventual acceptance.
On Monday, Juan Zuniga, the Colombian cast as villain for Neymar's absence, escaped retrospective punishment, but of more immediate concern to Brazilians was Fifa's rejection of the team's appeal to have Thiago Silva's one-match suspension overturned.
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The consequence is that Dante, the Bayern Munich defender, will step up to fill in for their suspended captain at centre-back.
That much is certain. What is not known is who has the task of filling the boots of Brazil’s boy wonder.
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has been training with Willian against Bernard, but there is also a sense in suspecting Ramires could be given the task. A leggy midfielder with an eye for goal, the Chelsea player would not be the obvious choice, but against an athletic German side he could be seen as a more robust option.
“All those who are here have ability and are capable of coming in and doing a good job,” said Bernard, of Shakhtar Donetsk. “Nobody expected we could come to a situation like this, without Neymar, but there is still time. We will be able to adjust and find the best way to cope with the situation.”
Bernard, who is from Belo Horizonte, has rarely featured in the World Cup so far, but he was a part of Scolari’s squad that won the Confederations Cup last summer and impressed in a victory over Uruguay during that tournament.
Scolari is a coach known for trusting absolutely in players who he has relied on in the past.
“It is a World Cup semi-final; a special moment,” Bernard said. “But if I am not chosen, we will have to agree with the coach.”
Willian, in contrast, was a late call-up, yet he has played in three of Brazil’s five matches, coming off the bench each time.
With his pace and penchant for step-overs, he is the more obvious replacement, even if he rejects the comparison.
“Neymar sets the standard,” Willian said. “He is capable of deciding any game, so playing without him will be difficult. You can’t compare him with other players.
“I have a different style, even if we have some similarities, like my pace. Neymar is a forward, while I am more of a midfielder, someone who creates chances for others.”
On Tuesday, the talk of Neymar should subside. Brazil is hoping a new hero can be born.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
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