Selecao defender Marquinhos insists his PSG team-mate Neymar is in good shape and very much focused ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, for which Brazil are favourites.

“How do you feel physically?
I felt ashamed (a thigh) In my last matches with PSG, it bothered me in my performance and in training during the week. With the World Cup approaching, it was decided together with the PSG medical staff that I would need a few days off to deal with this problem. I am back, gradually resuming my normal training routine. Even today (Thursday), I was able to do the whole session with the group and I am very happy. A week before our start (against Serbia), that’s a good sign. I played a lot with Paris so I kept in good shape.

Will this World Cup belong to Neymar?
The pressure and this label of technical leader is inevitable for him and it always has been since he was at Selecao. It’s normal when you see what he’s capable of and what qualities he has. But he copes. He is coming to the World Cup in good physical condition. I am with him every day and I know how prepared he is, how focused he is on the project and how much he has given up in his daily life. He is my close friend and I can 100% guarantee what I am saying. But I always tell him not to carry more weight than others. He has experienced players to support him and youngsters to take responsibility.

So does that really let him shine?
I hope so, I hope so! Offensively we have a lot of options today, with a variety of profiles, which is one of our strong points. Division of leadership is also division of responsibilities. We all help each other. There’s Thiago, Casemiro, me…

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What does your trainer bring you, tight?
His experience in the last World Cup gives us a lot of advantages. He speaks to us without any filter. Since we’ve been together, we’ve been working a lot because we need to get to a good intensity quickly. He also tries to give us a lot of information. As soon as we got here, there were meetings to prepare for the competition. Says everything that needs to be said and shows everything that needs to be shown. It’s the World Cup, it’s all about the little details. He wants to prepare everything, that’s his way of doing things, leaving nothing to chance. He tells us exactly what He wants and how He wants us to behave in specific situations.

Your practices are open to the media, so everyone knows what you’re doing. Is this a drawback?
No, because we have nothing to hide. This modus operandi is good, because if you keep quiet too much, the press will end up speculating about what’s going on, and it won’t actually be real … something is happening, and everyone is there, watching it. , which is already specified. We do not allow bad things from outside to affect us. The team is well prepared, the atmosphere is very good and we are ready to face anything. »

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