Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker has hailed Carlo Ancelotti as a “true winner” ahead of Brazil’s bid to win the World Cup for a record-extending sixth time.<\/p>\n
Ancelotti, 67, will take charge of his first World Cup game when Brazil open their Group C campaign against Morocco at the MetLife Stadium in New York on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ancelotti has won a record five Champions League titles as manager, and also became the first head coach to win all of Europe\u2019s top five leagues.<\/p>\n
But after spells with Parma, Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid in a trophy-laden career, Ancelotti has now been tasked with leading Brazil to their first World Cup title since 2002.<\/p>\n
“I can see his joy and gratitude for being the head coach and the leader of the Brazil national team,” said Alisson of the Italian, Brazil\u2019s first foreign manager since 1965.<\/p>\n
“He is a true winner and it really shows. You can see it in his expression. You notice it, and we as players notice it, too.<\/p>\n
“The guy has won everything in football, yet here he is working with the Brazil national team, still full of joy and enthusiasm.”<\/p>\n
Brazil start the tournament among the favourites, but they face a possible banana skin in their opening match when they play a country which progressed to the semi-finals at the previous World Cup.<\/p>\n
Morocco saw off Spain and Portugal on their run to the last four in 2022 and are currently ranked as the seventh-best team in the world.<\/p>\n
They were also named Africa Cup of Nations champions in March after Senegal\u2019s controversial win was overturned following a chaotic final.<\/p>\n
Brazil were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the last World Cup after losing a penalty shootout against Croatia.<\/p>\n
And Alisson continued: “Being the favourites does not guarantee anything for anyone. It does not guarantee that a team will become the champion.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes, it actually brings extra weight \u2013 and even greater responsibility \u2013 like the ‘weight of the jersey\u2019, we know that, right?<\/p>\n
“We know there is a huge responsibility. There are two sides to the weight of the jersey \u2013 responsibility but also privilege. So, it\u2019s a privilege and a joy. And that is something that the head coach conveys to us, too.”<\/p>\n
Neymar could be unavailable for Saturday\u2019s contest as he nurses a calf problem, while Morocco\u2019s preparations have been dented by the late injury withdrawals of Nayef Aguerd and Abde Ezzalzouli.<\/p>\n
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Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker has hailed Carlo Ancelotti as a “true winner” ahead of Brazil’s bid to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-496598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}