Vini Jr. shrugs off lead role, doesn’t see Brazil as Copa favourites | OneFootball

Vinícius Júnior held a press conference this Wednesday, on the eve of the friendly against France, and spoke about his leading role wearing the Brazil National Team jersey. Pressured to deliver better performances, the forward is putting individual matters aside and focusing on the team’s collective play.

“Everyone wants me to be a leading figure, and I’m ready for the challenges. I’ve already played in a World Cup, I have that experience, and I don’t want to lose again. We have to be prepared — anyone can be the main player at the World Cup. We can decide games from a set piece, with our center backs. Of course I want to score as many goals as possible, but I don’t want to be the top scorer, none of that. I want to help my team and become champions,” said Vini.

“We are not the favorites”

The Real Madrid player does not see Brazil as the favorite for the World Cup. However, he believes the national team is on the right track under head coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“We are not the favorites because of the results we had in the qualifiers. But the weight of the jersey, the quality of the players we have — it just needed to click. With Ancelotti, we have a better idea of how to play. He takes a lot of the responsibility off us, and that is very important. He understands the team he has,” the player said.

“It’s not because we have a lot of forwards that we won’t defend — we need to have a clear style of play. We will do everything to put Brazil back on top. We don’t want favoritism, we want to arrive at the World Cup with peace of mind,” he added.

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Vinícius Júnior sees the match against France as a great test for the team ahead of the World Cup. He looked ahead to the clash and did not promise a friendly atmosphere.

“It’s an important game. France are a great national team, with great players, some of them my teammates at Real Madrid. I think it will be a very open game, with two teams that have a lot of attacking players. No one will want to sit back and defend. It will be a good benchmark for us. We need to know how to defend and attack at full strength, which is always our main goal,” he said.

“There are no friendlies with us. Everyone wants to win. We are prepared and focused on putting in a great performance. The World Cup is very close, and any win gives us a lot of confidence,” he concluded.

Brazil face France this Thursday at 5 p.m. (Brasília time) at Gillette Stadium in Boston. Afterwards, the team will take on Croatia next Tuesday, starting at 9 p.m., at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

Brazil National Team’s upcoming matches

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.