World Cup 2018 Group E Brazil team profile: How they qualified, star man, World Cup record, fixtures

Brazil enjoyed 12 wins, five draws and only one defeat to dominate the final qualifying round of CONMEBOL closing with 10 points ahead of Uruguay and 13 ahead of Argentina in third. Brazil had the best attack (41 goals) and the best defence of the South American group. Gabriel Jesus, Neymar and Paulinho, each scored six goals.

Neymar is expected to be a star man at these finals after recovering from a foot injury ahead of the final. He suffered a back injury in the quarter-finals for years ago in Brazil's 2-1 win over Colombia. He won everything with Barcelona and after helping Brazil strike gold at the Olympics in 2016, he will be dreaming of raising football's most sought-after trophy in the Moscow sky.

Gabriel Jesus, 21, is overflowing with talent for the present and future of Seleçao. Having enchanted with the shirt of Palmeiras and won an Olympic gold medal in Rio De Janeiro in 2016, Jesus has further raised the bar at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola where he already has 20 goals in a year and a half of Premier League football. He has all the characteristics to wreak havoc at the World Cup on Russian soil, following in the footsteps of great strikers to have donned the green and gold.

Tite is the coach who won everything at Corinthians and then picked up Dunga's baton on the Seleçao bench. He is the new man of a Brazil who wants to cancel the shame of Mineirazo as soon as possible and that 7-1 humiliation by Germany. This is the place to wash away the shame.

For Brazil, five-times winners, hosting the finals has been synonymous with disaster; in 1950 it was reassembled at the Maracanà from Uruguay by Ghiggia and Schiaffino, 64 years later at the Mineirao of Belo Horizonte they suffered the unforgettable and shocking 1-7 from Germany. It is clear that this team is hunting for revenge four years after an unprecedented nightmare.

Who knows what would have happened without that injury to Neymar during the World Cup four years ago. In the meantime, the mood has changed and there is much more experience and support around Neymar compared to 2014. Fred, Jo and Bernard have given way to Gabriel Jesus, Firmino and Douglas Costa and all departments are covered properly. Tite's team really inspires fear, and favoured to put down an early marker in a very small group of pretenders to the throne.