Brazil ready for World Cup farewell on eve of final

Posted Sunday, July 13, 2014 by YAHOO Sport

Brasília (AFP) - Brazil prepared to bid farewell to the World Cup on Saturday as excitement mounted in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of the final between Argentina and Germany.

The hosts take on the Netherlands for third place in Brasilia in what will be an uncomfortable warm-up act for Sunday's grand finale at the Maracana Stadium.

Saturday's match will be the end of a campaign that turned to disaster for the World Cup hosts.

Brazil striker Neymar suffered a fractured vertebrae in the quarter-final against Colombia and will spend several more weeks on the sidelines.

Brazil, without Neymar and their suspended captain Thiago Silva, went on to collapse to a historic 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semi-final.

Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and much-maligned striker Fred were jeered as they arrived for the match at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia, which was to kick off at 2000 GMT.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, are still drained by their penalty shoot-out defeat to Argentina and Dutch coach Louis van Gaal will have his mind on moving to Manchester United for the new season.

Van Gaal at first said the third-place match should "never be played", but he changed his version on Friday to say: "We are going to do everything to finish third.

- Security blanket -

Brazilian authorities are preparing their biggest ever security operation for Sunday's final with nearly 25,800 police, soldiers and private security guards on duty in the city and at the Maracana stadium.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, whose country will host the 2018 World Cup finals, will join Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at the Germany-Argentina match, where Ukraine leader Petro Poroshenko wil also be in attendance.

About 100,000 Argentine fans are expected to invade the city, even though most do not have tickets.

"We have from today the biggest security operation that the city, the country, has ever seen," said Rio state security secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame.

In a bid to avoid violence, bars around the Maracana stadium will be ordered to stop selling alcohol two hours before Sunday's match. Police blockades around the stadium will go up Saturday night.

Rousseff basked in the glow of what has been a largely trouble-free tournament.

"We were able to do the Cup even though they said it would be chaos," Rousseff told foreign correspondents at the presidential residence Friday night.

"They said it would be horrific."

Germany will go into Sunday's match as favourites after their 7-1 triumph against Brazil. But Argentine captain Lionel Messi, four time world player of the year, will be looking for his first World Cup title.

The teams have already played each other in two World Cup finals. Argentina, with Diego Maradona, beat West Germany 3-2 in 1986 in Mexico. West Germany took revenge with a 1-0 victory in the 1990 final in Italy.

A European country has never won the World Cup tournament held in the Americas.

Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger said Saturday his side will be under "no pressure" on Sunday despite being favourites for the game.

"We're looking forward to it. There's huge anticipation and joy. We have no pressure," Schweinsteiger said.

Striker Miroslav Klose is the only survivor in the Germany squad from the team beaten 2-0 by Brazil in the 2002 final, but Schweinsteiger says that his team-mates have sufficient experience of major games.

"We have lots of players among the 23 who've played in important finals and we know how to handle that," he said.