Lets not do a France, says Parreira

Thursday 8 December, 2005

Brazil boss Carlos Alberto Parreira is hoping that his side will learn a lesson from France’s 2002 World Cup debacle.

Les Bleus went into the 2002 tournament as holders, but failed to score a single goal in the group phase and crashed out prematurely.

France’s failure was match by the much-fancied Argentinians, and Parreira said: “We are hoping that we won’t have very strong opponents in the group phase.

“It would be good to try to avoid what happened to Argentina and France in 2002.

“Brazil are going to need a bit of luck to avoid the big teams. We could be facing Portugal or the Netherlands in the first round," he pointed out.

Parreira’s cautious words are almost certainly designed to calm the hype currently surrounding the Brazilian national team, strong favourites to win in Germany.

The draw for the group phase takes place in Leipzig on Friday evening.