Brazil 2014: 8 Days to go

World Cup hosts Brazil cruised to a 4-0 win over Panama in their penultimate warm-up on Tuesday, goals from Neymar, Daniel Alves, Hulk and Willian securing the victory margin.

The same day, Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Switzerland secured a 2-0 home win in their World Cup warm-up against Peru thanks to second-half goals from Juventus defender Stephan Lichtsteiner and Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri.

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal expects Robin van Persie to hit peak fitness for the start of the World Cup Brazil. Louis van Gaal said:

He is not 100 per cent, but we have two weeks to go. I think he will be 100 per cent. He is coming out of injury but we built him already up in our federation, our medical department.

It was under the permission of David Moyes. So we could control him, he has worked very hard. Then he played two matches of 20 or 30 minutes and the last match 70 minutes. We did not expect that as the injury was bad.

Portugal are worried about the fitness of Christian Ronaldo. The Portugese FA said of Ronaldo:-

He has a muscle injury on the back of his left thigh as well as left-leg patellar tendinitis.

Group G side Portugal will play two friendlies while in the United States. They take on Mexico in Foxboro near Boston on Friday – at the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots. Next Tuesday they face Ireland at the Jets’ MetLife Stadium.

Group F team Bosnia-Herzegovina boosted their confidence ahead of their first World Cup with a 1-0 friendly victory over Mexico on Tuesday. Not such a good result for Mexico though ahead of their opening game against Cameroon on June 13th. Mexico will also face hosts Brazil and Croatia in Group A.

Greece and Nigeria played out a scoreless draw yesterday in an international friendly match as part of their World Cup warm up.

FIFA has wiped Belgium‘s 5-1 win in a friendly against Luxembourg from the record books. Coach Marc Wilmots used 7 substitutes when only 6 are permitted. So, also expunged from the records will be Romelu Lukaku’s hat-trick.

FIFA will embark on a plan ensure that every player who takes part in the World Cup has a drug test and carries a ‘biological passport’. The governing body wants to impose the passport such as used in cycling and athletics) so they’ll follow a player throughout his career, giving details of blood and urine tests.