The Round of 32 kicked off last night with Canana knocking out South Africa. Now, Brazil come face to face with Japan at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
Back-to-back 3-0 wins over Haiti and Scotland will give Brazil boss Carlo Ancelotti confidence heading into the game as his team starts to find their rhythm this summer.
Neymar, Brazil’s all time scorer has been working his way back to fitness from a calf injury and managed a little over 15 minutes against Scotland as he replaced Matheus Cunha off the bench.
Speaking ahead of the Japan clash, Ancelotti revealed that Neymar is doing well behind the scenes but still can’t play a full 90 minutes.
"Neymar has progressed very well. I think he improved a lot last week," Ancelotti told reporters. "It's a shame he couldn't train the whole time he was with us.
“He can play more than 15 minutes. He's in good shape. But it depends a lot on the game context and how things develop."
Neymar has scored nine goals in five matches against Japan during his career and fans will be keen to see him make more of an impact on Monday night even if reports state he will not start the clash.
Not since 1982 have the five-time champions failed to progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup and Ancelotti won’t allow his side to slow down as they look towards the Round of 16.