A new Brazil is taking shape – and Cunha plays a key rolepublished at 17:20 Moscow time
Japan – Brazil (18:00 BST)
The World Cup is taking shape and I’m happy to say that so is Team Brazil.
It looks like Carlo Ancelotti has found his best line-up and we are improving, gaining pace and confidence with every game in the group stage.
We are getting better at the right time and we need it because Japan will be a big test in the last 32 matches.
It seems that we are on the right track, and this is largely due to Matheus Cunha. He is the key to so much of what we do so well.
It’s quite funny to say that because normally the Brazilian public expects our attack to be led by a classic number nine and Cunha is different from what fans usually look for.
He is over nine and a half years old. Someone who can play like a nine, but also like a 10, to put the game together and create for others.
So he is not like Ronaldo, Adriano or Romario, some of our great strikers of the last 30 years, but since he can also score goals (and he has three in this tournament), he is not a playmaker either.
Instead, he gives the team something Brazil may never have had before, in terms of a center forward anyway.