World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why Brazil vs Mexico has the potential to be a Classic

#1 Philippe Coutinho vs the Mexican midfield

Phillipe Coutinho

Coutinho has been in wonderful form for club and country over the past couple of years. At this World Cup, he has been Brazil’s driving force. He made the crucial breakthrough against Costa Rica and provided the assist to break the deadlock against Serbia. At present, he is Brazil’s best player.

However, he would be up against Guardado, the old war-horse, in the Round of 16. Guardado is a solid midfielder who gets his job done defensively while also being efficient with the ball. He is the talisman of Mexico’s midfield and is the leader the Mexicans look up to.

In the match against Brazil, Guardado would be marking Coutinho and would do everything to keep him quiet. At this World Cup, Coutinho has not faced a stoic midfielder like Guardado. If Coutinho is able to break away from his marker and pull the strings for Brazil, Mexico could find themselves on the verge of elimination.

A possible solution for Mexico would be to zonally mark Coutinho. Coutinho roams across all areas of the pitch and it would be difficult for one man to ‘mark’ him out of the game completely. Mexico can take a leaf out of Iceland’s book and look at how they marked Messi out of the game.

This is a battle that no one would want to take their eyes off and the outcome of this battle would have a huge bearing on the result of the match.