Neymar slams no-threat England

Posted Saturday, June 01, 2013 by thesun.co.uk

ROAR TALENT ... Neymar in action against the Lions

NEYMAR has slammed England’s World Cup chances — saying they are not worth thinking about.

Barcelona’s star signing was part of the Brazil team that lost 2-1 in February’s friendly at Wembley — but that defeat has done nothing to change his opinion of the Three Lions.

Neymar said: “I have respect for a lot of the England players as they have achieved great things at their clubs.

“But, as a national team, I don’t look at England and think they are going to be a real threat at the World Cup.

“We want to win the World Cup in front of our home fans and the two nations I look at as a real threat are Germany and Spain.

“After that it’s a group including Argentina, Holland, Italy and one or two more.

“But England I don’t even think about.”

Sunday’s game at the Maracana will be the first official fixture to be played at the famous stadium since it was renovated last month.

Neymar said: “It’s a big game for us on Sunday because we want to open the new stadium with a win.

“The most important thing is we impress the coach though. There are only 11 places in the team for the opening game at the World Cup and each player needs to prove to the coach he’s worth being in one of those places.”

The Samba superstar played his final game for Santos last weekend and turned down the chance of a move to the Premier League with Chelsea or Manchester City to join Spanish champions Barcelona.

The deal is worth around £20million to his old club and £25m for the companies who co-own him.

He said: “There was interest from teams in England and Spain, but my family spoke to me about joining a club where you could not just win things but where there’s stability.

“I didn’t want to play for a team that changed its coach every season.”